TORIES elected on Boris Johnson’s coat-tails in 2019 met yesterday to discuss ditching him — in a move dubbed the Pork Pie Plot.
They sharpened knives as battered Boris insisted no one told him a May 2020 knees up in Downing Street was against lockdown rules at the time.
More than a dozen “newbie” Tories met for crisis talks at the Commons office of MP Alicia Kearns, whose Rutland and Melton constituency is home to the pork pie.
Christian Wakeford, the 2019-elected MP for Bury South, became the seventh to put a letter in calling for a vote of confidence in the PM.
Another Tory MP told HOAR: “There are more than a dozen ready to strike.”
But the older guard lashed out at the newbies for their disloyalty — and ministers sarcastically christened their stand the Pork Pie Plot.
One ally said: “It’s pretty sickening. They were only elected because of Boris. Most of them are a load of f*****g nobodies. It’s nuts.”
Meanwhile, the PM’s first public appearance in almost a week did little to dampen the mounting fury in his party, amid the inquiry led by senior civil servant Sue Gray.
The pressure increased further when it emerged that Boris’s nemesis, his former top aide Dominic Cummings, has been invited to give evidence to the probe.
Mr Cummings claimed he warned the PM the May 2020 event broke Covid rules, and accused him of lying to parliament.
But on a visit to Finchley Memorial Hospital in North London, Boris said: “I can tell you categorically that nobody said this was something that was against the rules, or was a breach of the Covid rules, or we were doing something that wasn’t a work event.”
The PM stared at the floor and sighed heavily as he was asked about other No 10 gatherings.
And he again apologised to the Queen for two parties held the night before Prince Philip’s funeral in April 2021, neither of which he attended.
He added: “I deeply and bitterly regret that that happened and I can only renew my apologies both to Her Majesty and to the country for misjudgments that were made.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said he “of course” believed the PM but he stopped short of giving BoJo his full backing yesterday and cut off a TV interview when repeatedly asked about Mr Johnson’s future.
Asked if the PM should quit if found to have lied to parliament, the Chancellor said: “I am not going to get into hypotheticals.”
Deputy PM Dominic Raab rubbished Mr Cummings’ claims as “nonsense”. But he admitted the PM’s position would be untenable if he is found to have lied.
