Wednesday 6 July 2022 11:48 PM Has there ever been a crazier political panto? Why it was a bad day for Boris trends now

Boris Johnson was typically bullish when he woke up this morning. 

He had faced dramatic calls to resign from two of his most important Cabinet ministers the night before – but was unperturbed. ‘I’m not going anywhere,’ he told friends. 

‘I’m going to smash on and deliver for the people who gave us a massive mandate. 

‘Everyone just needs to calm down, stop bickering and let us get on with the job in hand.’ 

But even as Mr Johnson’s newly minted Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi was taking to the airwaves to defend him, fellow ministers and aides were typing up their resignation letters. 

The trickle – ten overnight – was to become a stream, then a flood, with an additional and unprecedented 32 members of the government quitting today. 

It was always going to be one of the most bruising and difficult days of his political career. 

Mr Johnson knew he had Prime Minister’s Questions to get through, as well as a meeting of the liaison committee, where he would face tough questioning from senior backbench MPs. 

But that was only the beginning. As well as the resignations – including five ministers who quit together in an astonishing joint letter – it emerged surviving Cabinet members were visiting Mr Johnson to warn him the game was up. 

Michael Gove, who had been a conspicuous absence at Prime Minister’s Questions, was the first to make his move. 

The Mail+ reported at just before 2.30pm that the Levelling Up Secretary – Mr Johnson’s nemesis in his failed 2016 bid for the Tory leadership – had told the PM bluntly: ‘It’s time to go.’ 

The revelation electrified Westminster – and yet still the Prime Minister clung on. 

Tonight the PM exacted retribution on Mr Gove and sacked him. In a sensational development, a No10 source explained: ‘You cannot have a snake who is not with you on any of the big arguments who then gleefully briefs the Press that he has called for the leader to go. You cannot operate like that.’ 

Here Daniel Martin, Policy Editor, charts one of the most extraordinary days Westminster has ever seen...

8.07AM

Mr Zahawi is preparing to go on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in a bid to shore up support for his beleaguered leader. He had been appointed by Boris Johnson less than 12 hours earlier to replace Rishi Sunak as Chancellor. Just minutes before Nick Robinson begins the interview in the key 8.10am slot, the first resignation of the day is announced. 

Laura Trott writes on Facebook that she is quitting as aide to Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary. She says: ‘Trust in politics is – and must always be – of the utmost importance, but sadly in recent months this has been lost.’ 

While Mr Zahawi’s interview is still on-going, another resignation lands. Children’s minister Will Quince, who went out on TV on Monday to defend the PM over the Chris Pincher affair, says he is angry the assurances given to him by No10 – and the lines to take – over Mr Johnson’s conduct had turned out to be wrong. 

Confronted live on air, the new Chancellor is wrong-footed but says he is ‘sorry to see’ them go. In an excruciating encounter, Mr Zahawi has little to say but: ‘All I would say to colleagues is people don’t vote for divided teams. We have to come together.

9AM

In west London, Sajid Javid refuses to take questions as he leaves home hours after his bombshell resignation as health secretary. He tells waiting journalists: ‘Morning, thanks for coming. It is good to see you.’ He is keeping his powder dry for a brutal resignation speech in the Commons later.

9.43AM

Another minister quits. Robin Walker resigns as schools minister, saying he no longer has any faith in the PM’s leadership. In his letter, he says the government has been ‘overshadowed by mistakes and questions about integrity’.

10.30AM

Mr Gove goes to see the PM in his den on the ground floor at No10. Mr Gove has knifed his old friend and rival before and does not want to be seen doing so publicly again. He warns the PM his position is ‘no longer sustainable’, telling him: ‘The party will move to get rid of you’. He urges him: ‘It is better to go on your own terms.’ 

At the end of the amicable five-minute conversation, Mr Johnson tells Mr Gove: ‘Thank you, but I am going to fight on.’ The pair then go down the corridor to the Cabinet Room, where Mr Gove helps Mr Johnson to prepare for Prime Minister’s Questions. 

Late tonight, the payback is lethal. No10 accuses him of leaking details of the conversation – and Mr Gove is out.

10.45AM

Previously loyal backbenchers start to turn against the PM. Rob Halfon, chairman of the Commons education committee and seen as a voice of blue collar Tories, says he favours a change in leadership. 

‘Not only has there been a real loss of integrity, there has been a failure of policy,’ he says. 

Even more damagingly, Red Wall MP Lee Anderson says he can no longer back Mr Johnson – despite having barely said a word against him since he was elected in 2019. The MP for Ashfield says: ‘Integrity should always come first and sadly this has not been the case over the past few days.’ 

Former universities minister Chris Skidmore also calls on the PM to fall on his sword. He says his handling of the Pincher scandal was ‘tantamount to the cover-up of sexual abuse’.

11.06AM 

John Glen – Mr Sunak’s deputy at the Treasury – resigns, saying he has a ‘complete lack of confidence’ in Mr Johnson’s leadership. 

And Felicity Buchan – an aide to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng – quits, saying the PM’s position is ‘untenable’. 

Another previously loyal backbencher Tom Hunt, turns on Mr Johnson, saying: ‘Events of the past week have been the straw that has broken the camel’s back.’ 

11.21AM 

Now it is the turn of Justice Minister Victoria Atkins to hand in her notice. She says ‘integrity, decency, respect and professionalism’ should matter in public life