Boris Johnson told ‘absolutely critical’ to engage more with backbench Tories after series of U-turns

Treasurer of 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers says it's 'absolutely critical' for PM to engage with MPs

Johnson does not want to see the song banned from Twickenham (EPA)

Boris Johnson has been urged to pull down the “iron curtain” at Downing Street and pay greater attention to the concerns of Tory MPs following a series of damaging U-turns.

The warning to the prime minister came during a “cordial” meeting between Mr Johnson and members of the influential 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs on Wednesday evening.

It also follows the decision by Mr Johnson to U-turn on the government’s decision to scrap free school meal vouchers over the summer months – after a sustained campaign from the Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson was told at the meeting of the 1922 to listen more to the concerns of Tory backbenchers on key issues such as quarantine measures and social distancing rules, relayed by their constituents.

“Boris needs to get the message his liaison with parliamentary colleagues needs to get better and better quickly,” a Conservative MP told the newspaper. “There seems to be an iron curtain around Downing Street.”

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Geoffrey Clinton Brown, the treasurer of the 1922 Committee, also said it was “absolutely critical” for the prime minister to engage with backbench MPs.

“He needs the support of backbenchers to get his legislation through,” Sir Geoffrey said. “That goes without saying and I think yesterday’s meeting proved that he’s prepared to do that. I think it was a perfectly cordial meeting yesterday. Of course with any such meetings, probing questions were put.

“We are in a very serious situation and it’s important backbenchers understand what’s in the prime minister’s thinking and that’s exactly what happened yesterday.”

Pressed on the issue of free school meals and the government’s U-turn following Mr Rashford’s campaign, he added: “I think it was the right thing to do.

“Policy making should be done in a rational way and I think that proper consultation should have been undertaken some while ago and the decision in the normal way. But having said that it was absolutely the right thing to do.”

On the debate over changing the two metre social distancing rule to one, Sir Geoffrey also said schools would not be able to return with all children in September “unless the two metre rule is changed”.

He continued: “I’m quite certain, from everything I’ve heard, that it will have been changed by then. The prime minister as he has made public is undertaking a detailed study on this and I’m absolutely certain that by September it will have been changed.”