Tuesday 5 July 2022 08:12 PM Inside Boris Johnson's excruciating Cabinet meeting today where PM sat with ... trends now
Boris Johnson's ship began sinking today during a toe-curling Cabinet meeting today where his ministers sat listening to him 'with faces like smacked ar**s' including the men who knifed him: Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid.
The Prime Minister told his sombre top team they must 'help people through the current difficult times' but judging by the faces as the TV camera panned around the room in Downing Street this morning it appears some were already considering their futures.
'A picture paints a thousand words,' one senior Tory official told the FT, suggesting that Mr Johnson will have regretted letting in the cameras when his ministers looked so miserable. One critic tweeted afterwards: 'Now we know why they all had faces like smacked a***s this morning, they knew their ship was sinking'.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid, the first to quit this evening, kept his head down and looked at his papers, before scribbling furiously on his pad as Mr Johnson began speaking. And the usually excitable Tory leader also bowed his head at times as he sat next to his chancellor Rishi Sunak, who also walked out on Mr Johnson tonight.
Further to his left, Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey even appeared to be glaring at the PM. Ms Coffey was sent out to bat for Johnson over the weekend over the Chris Pincher scandal and is said to be considering her position.
The camera then panned around the table, stopping on a stony-faced Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, who have both said they are '100 per cent' loyal to the Tory leader.
Head bowed, Boris Johnson at the Cabinet meeting before several ministers quit. Rishi Sunak was among the ministers who walked out - and sat to the PM's left today. He would resign, telling the Prime Minister that standards in Government are 'worth fighting for'.
In a hint of what was to come, Sajid Javid looked grim and had his head bowed. He resigned as Health Secretary this evening
The Prime Minister told his sombre top team they must 'help people through the current difficult times'
Therese Coffey gives Boris Johnson the death stare in a gloomy Cabinet meeting in Downing Street today as the PM's premiership teetered on the brink
Michael Gove, who appears to be staying in the job, sat playing with his lips
Even ultra loyalists Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg appeared to know trouble was coming the PM's way
Suella Braverman, the Attorney General, stared blankly ahead next to a miserable Chris Heaton-Harris, the chief whip, whose job is to keep Mr Johnson's MPs on side and is holed up with the PM in No 10 tonight.
While Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove said rubbing his fingers along his lips in the direction of Mr Javid, with some Westminster watchers pondering if it might have been a 'secret signal'.
Hours later Boris Johnson's
