Conservative Yorkshire council leader calls on Boris Johnson to resign

Carl Les told the Guardian that “a lot of the comment we were getting on the doorstep was about the impact of partygate” as he was campaigning for the local elections which saw the Tories hit by heavy losses across the country.

He is the latest in a line of senior Conservative figures telling the Prime Minister to consider his position after the Sue Gray report revealed drinking and lockdown rule breaking in Downing Street.

Mr Les told the newspaper: “I am very disappointed that the strong majority we had in North Yorkshire has diminished down to a working majority, but only just, and a lot of the comment we were getting on the doorstep was about the impact of partygate”.

Asked about what local members think of the Prime Minister, Mr Les added: “There are a number of people who think the Prime Minister should resign and we should have a leadership election and personally I would support that.”

His first choice for leader would be his own MP in Richmond, Rishi Sunak.

Mr Les’ intervention comes amid growing speculation that Mr Johnson could face a confidence vote in his leadership, as an increasing number of MPs have raised questions about his position.

Among them is Mr Sunak's predecessor in Richmond, Lord Hague, who has said the Prime Minister is “in real trouble” and that Tory MPs are “moving towards having a ballot” on his leadership.

Allies of Mr Johnson had been hopeful he had escaped unscathed following a relatively muted initial response to Ms Gray’s report last week, but former party leader Lord Hague said it is proving to be “one of those sort of slow-fuse explosions in politics”.

“It’s still going along.

“A lot of people misread it really, the events of last week as meaning the trouble is over, Boris is free and that’s actually not the mood in the Conservative Party, which is very, very troubled about the contents of that report,” he told Times Radio.

“So I think the Conservative Party will need to resolve this one way or another, obviously because to be an effective party they either need to rally behind the Prime Minister they’ve got, or they need to decide to force him out.

“I think they’re moving towards either next week or around the end of June, they are moving towards having a ballot, it looks like that.”

Former Cabinet Minister Dame Andrea Leadsom has also accused Mr Johnson of “unacceptable failings of leadership”.

In a letter to her constituents, Dame Andrea said the “extent and severity” of the rule-breaking in No 10 exposed in the Sue Gray report meant it was “extremely unlikely” the senior leadership did not know what was going on.

“The conclusion I have drawn from the Sue Gray report is that there have been unacceptable failings of leadership that cannot be tolerated and are the responsibility of the Prime Minister,” she said.

In the message, which was shared on social media, she stopped short of directly calling on Mr Johnson to resign and did not say whether she had submitted a letter calling for a no confidence vote.

Dame Andrea concluded however by saying: “Each of my Conservative colleagues and I must now decide individually on what is the right course of action that will restore confidence in our Government.”