Brandon leads the push to sack Boris — Northern Ireland Secretary Lewis turns on embattled Prime Minister Johnson, amid high drama in Westminster

Brandon Lewis last night was part of a cabinet group that urged Mr Johnson to step down as prime minister.

It was the culmination of an extraordinary day in which the PM dramatically sacked cabinet rival Michael Gove and rejected calls to quit as support for his leadership collapsed at Westminster.

The prime minister met his ministers in No 10 yesterday, where he was told he had lost the confidence of the Tory party and could not continue in office. Mr Gove told the PM on Wednesday morning that it was time for him to quit.

Even Johnson loyalist Mr Lewis committed a dramatic u-turn yesterday and joined his cabinet colleagues in urging Johnson to resign.

It marks a huge shift in Mr Lewis’ former support for the PM, after giving public assurances yesterday morning that Mr Johnson had his support. But by 5pm the PA news agency reported that he was preparing to tell Boris Johnson to leave No 10, believing his position was “now untenable”.

Yesterday morning Mr Lewis told UTV that Mr Johnson received an overwhelming mandate from the electorate in 2019, as well as an overwhelming mandate in the same year from the party.

Speaking at an integrated school in Belfast, Mr Lewis added that he believed Johnson had a duty to get on with delivering for people. The Great Yarmouth MP has often defended Johnson amid other political controversies.

Yesterday morning he insisted the PM was determined to “fix the issues surrounding the Northern Ireland Protocol” in order to get “Stormont up and running”. However, after dozens of MPs quit the government Mr Lewis flew to London to tell his former ally that it was time to go.

At 9.15pm Mr Lewis entered 10 Downing Street but said nothing to reporters. At one point Mr Lewis was himself said to have quit.

Amid confusion and high drama, the BBC mistakenly announced Brandon Lewis had resigned as Secretary for Northern Ireland, before withdrawing the report.

At one point yesterday seventeen ministers and a line of ministerial aides had resigned as Mr Johnson’s authority drained away in a dramatic 24 hours in Westminster.

His battle to remain in power was said to have reached new heights during the clash with cabinet ministers.

Mr Lewis’ loyalty outlasted that of many other Tory MPs yesterday.

He owed so much of his ministerial career to Boris Johnson and was clearly reluctant to turn his back on his former leader.

He was chairman of the Conservative Party when Mr Johnson won the leadership of the party in July 2019, and he greeted the victory of the new leader warmly.

Mr Lewis was appointed Minister of State at the Home Office in Boris Johnson’s first cabinet that same summer.

In February 2020, in his first reshuffle following the General Election, the prime minister appointed him as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

However by yesterday evening he had flown from Belfast to London and was in a delegation of cabinet ministers meeting Boris Johnson to urge him to leave Downing Street, as he haemorrhaged support across Tory ranks.

However the prime minister insisted “I’m not going to step down” as sources said Grant Shapps and Brandon Lewis were among a group of once-loyal allies demanding he quits.

The junior Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns voiced his support for the embattled prime minister in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Mark Logan MP, a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Northern Ireland Office, tendered his resignation on Wednesday afternoon, saying to the prime minister that his constituents “deserve more from leadership”.

Mr Logan was the second PPS from the NIO to resign in the last 24 hours.

On Tuesday, Jonathan Gullis, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, joined other Government figures in resigning as parliamentary private secretary to Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis.

Mr Johnson’s attempts to battle for his job came under further pressure after more resignations and a leadership challenge from former ally Suella Braverman.

The prime minister was later hit with the departure of a third Cabinet minister — Welsh Secretary Simon Hart — and further demands to go from the Attorney General.

In other departures, last night Conservative MP Gareth Davies quit as parliamentary private secretary to the Department of Health and Social Care.

The Grantham and Stamford MP tweeted:

“It is with great regret that I have informed the whips office of my resignation as a PPS at the Department of Health and Social Care. It has been a privilege to serve in the role and not a decision I have taken lightly.”