Pork Pie Plotters courted by Rishi

As PM spends the weekend holed up at Chequers rallying MPs – is Chancellor on manoeuvres scheming to replace him?

Referred to dismissively by PM’s allies as ‘nobodies’ and ‘rookies’

THE attempted putsch against Boris Johnson by Tory MPs angered by the Partygate row has renewed suspicions between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who is the favourite to succeed him.

As Mr Johnson spends the weekend trying to shore up his support by calling wavering MPs from his Chequers country retreat, Mr Sunak has been cementing his standing among the socalled Pork Pie Plotters who want to remove the Prime Minister from Downing Street.

Shortly after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday – when Mr Johnson endured the defection to Labour of one of his MPs, Christian Wakeford, and a call for his resignation from former Cabinet Minister David Davis – Mr Sunak met rebel ringleaders from the Red Wall constituencies won from Labour in the 2019 General Election.

As part of what was interpreted as a drive to reassure the plotters that he would be as generous as Mr Johnson with regional funding, a source said they were reassured that their constituencies would receive ‘unlimited’ Treasury support, adding: ‘He didn’t mention the leadership, but he didn’t have to – he made clear that they would be safe in his hands.’

The source said Mr Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, his main leadership rival, had texted the rebels within hours of Mr Johnson’s hangdog interview with Sky News on Tuesday in which he sighed and mumbled about his Government’s travails.

Mr Johnson’s Cabinet allies, led by Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, are battling to save his Premiership as Downing Street braces for the publication of the official report into Partygate – and for the potential sparking of an explosive leadership contest. Ms Dorries – a die-hard Johnson loyalist – uses an article in today’s Mail on Sunday to condemn the ‘attention-seeking behaviour’ of rebel Tory MPs who have been trying to muster the 54 letters of no-confidence needed to trigger a Commons vote on removing the Prime Minister from office.

Ms Dorries, describing them as a ‘small minority’ devoted to ‘chasing airtime and column inches because they are determined to remove our most successful PM since Margaret Thatcher from office’, warns that the rebels risk jeopardising the country’s recovery from the pandemic. She writes: ‘When historians look back, the UK’s vaccine rollout will be seen as one of the most successful peacetime operations in history – thanks to Boris.

‘He also took the decision to hold out against another lockdown this winter in the face of intense pressure and doom-laden predictions from Labour. How many businesses were saved as a consequence? How many millions of people were enabled to have Christmas with their families?’

The Culture Secretary adds: ‘Of course there have been mistakes. The last two years have been hell for everyone, and for those working 18 hours every single day after day for weeks on end in the Downing Street war rooms, lines clearly became blurred.’

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is also playing a key role in bolstering support, along with other members of Mr Johnson’s 2019 leadership campaign team.

No10 fears that the report into Partygate by senior civil servant Sue Gray, which is expected to land by Thursday, will prompt a further flurry of letters to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, and a dramatic Commons showdown. Mr Johnson’s allies say he will fight any attempt to topple him, but if a majority of his MPs vote against him the Tory party will be plunged into its second leadership contest in under three years. A number of MPs are known to have written their letters ready to send in if the report proves to be damning. Tory strategists worry that if Mr Johnson narrowly wins a confidence vote and stays on, the party will be trapped in a slow death cycle. Under the rules, the Prime Minister would be protected from a further challenge for a year.

The attempted putsch has unleashed infighting between rival camps of Tory MPs, with whips also accused of heavy-handed attempts to intimidate the rebels with the threat of revealing allegations about their sex lives.

One MP claims it was hinted that he would be outed as homosexual, while another was reportedly warned that alleged sexual harassment would be revealed. A third

was confronted with hotly denied claims of unusual sexual peccadillos with male prostitutes. One has threatened to release a recording of a whip’s threats.

William Wragg, a backbencher who accused Downing Street of trying to blackmail rebel MPs, said yesterday he would meet police to discuss his allegations. Downing Street said it had not seen any proof of the behaviour he alleges.

Chris Bryant, chairman of the Commons Committee on Standards, said about a dozen Tory MPs alleged whips threatened to withdraw funding for their constituencies. MPs loyal to Mr Johnson also confronted rebel ringleaders in the Commons tea room after PMQs. One, who was described as a ‘traitor’ for joining a meeting of 18 Red Wallers in the

‘I’d crawl across broken glass to put in my letter’

office of Rutland and Melton MP Alicia Kearns, bluntly told his accuser: ‘Just f*** off.’

Pro-Johnson MPs also received brutal treatment. Stoke-on-Trent North MP Jonathan Gullis, one of a few Red Wallers to back the Prime Minister on MPs’ WhatsApp groups, was ridiculed for a TV interview in which he claimed letters were being withdrawn – but admitted he didn’t know by whom or how many.

The rebels – dubbed the Pork Pie Plotters because Ms Kearns’s constituency is home to Melton Mowbray pies – said dismissive references to them by Johnson allies as ‘f ****** nobodies’ and ‘ungrateful rookies’ had made them more determined. ‘After hearing that, I would crawl across broken glass to put in my letter,’ said one.

If the 54 letters are received, then Mr Sunak and Ms Truss, along with other likely contenders such as former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, are ready to run.

Early signs suggest that MPs are coalescing behind Mr Sunak, although one who has been courted said: ‘My impression is that Liz wants to go for it now, while Rishi would prefer for all this fuss to die down and run in the summer.’

THE plan to increase National Insurance contributions in

April may have seemed like a good idea when it was announced by the Prime Minister last September. But since then its attractions have lessened.

It is hard to believe promises that the money will be ringfenced to deal with the NHS backlog – a problem that can only really be solved by longterm recruitment and retention of skilled staff.

Such pledges seldom come true. And it looks increasingly sneaky – a way of raising income tax without admitting to it – which will fall most heavily on the hardest working.

The economy is recovering, and the last thing we need right now is to punish work.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak does not seem to want or need it, so why not scrap it now?