Is there anyone left who wants to work in Downing Street?

A spate of ministerial resignations could tip the balance against Boris Johnson in a confidence vote, writes Andrew Grice

Whitehall insiders are calling it an ‘end of days’ atmosphere (PA Wire)

One of the more ludicrous claims made by Boris Johnson’s allies during the crisis engulfing him is that he is somehow the victim of a revenge attack by bitter Remainers. He even nodded to the idea in the Commons, saying that “many people may want me out of the way”.

The theory has now been buried for good by the explosive resignation of Munira Mirza as his head of policy; she is a Brexiteer, libertarian and chief architect of the government’s culture wars. The other three departures in Thursday night’s dramatic exodus from Downing Street were long planned over “partygate” – and rushed out to divert attention from Mirza’s principled resignation over Johnson’s baseless attack on Keir Starmer on the failure to prosecute the paedophile Jimmy Savile while he was director of public prosecutions.

Johnson would not have wanted to announce that Martin Reynolds, Dan Rosenfield and Jack Doyle were leaving over “partygate” without saying at the same time who would replace them. “It’s a distraction,” one Tory insider told me, adding that Mirza’s principled, surprise resignation had shaken Team Johnson to its core. Tory MPs called to one-to-one meetings so he can plead for their support report that he “plays the victim” and insists he did nothing wrong over the parties.