Updated 7.30am June 6th.
There are a mass of resources for those wanting to know how many Conservative MPs claim to have sent a letter to Graham Brady demanding a confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s leadership.
Or those who have called on him to go (not quite the same thing).
Or those who have criticised him publicly.
The Spectator has a list of those calling on him to go, Guido Fawkes ditto. Then there is Tom Larkin of Sky‘s list of the same together with one of those Conservative MPs calling for a new leader at the next election, and John Rentoul’s detailed breakdown of the different takes of different Tory MPs, including those who say that they have sent in a letter.
I start from the premis that one can never be sure who has sent in such a letter, since only Graham Brady knows, but John lists 14 and there’s no reason to doubt any of them.
My own count of those who have unambiguously said that the Prime Minister to go and not rescinded that view is:
A word on methodology: this list is conservative with a small “c”. In other words, it doesn’t admit, say, Nickie Aiken, who hasn’t as I write actually called on the Prime Minister to resign, but has said that he should submit himself to a confidence vote to “end speculation”.
Not all of those above in my list will necessarily have submitted a letter (Davis, for example), but knock off, say, three; then add another (say) 15, and one would be in the low 40s for that purpose.
John Rentoul lists 16 as claiming to have sent letters to Brady. Add Bridgen and say 12 of the 15 of his seperate list of those who have called on Johnson to go, and one reaches 29.
“The most sophisticated electorate in the world” is notoriously hard to read, but some Tory MPs will have written to Brady without announcing it. So it is possible that the theshold of 54 letters has already been reached.
A well-placed Minister told me last Friday that the odds of one are now “less than evens”. Parliament’s return from recess is the next likely date for significant developments. This list will be updated as and when necessary.