London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Oct 19, 2025

Tory council leader in Rishi Sunak’s seat calls on Johnson to quit

Tory council leader in Rishi Sunak’s seat calls on Johnson to quit

North Yorkshire and Sunderland leaders among those calling for PM to step down amid Partygate fallout
Rishi Sunak’s local council leader is among a growing number of senior Conservatives calling for Boris Johnson to step down as party members lose patience with his leadership.

Carl Les, the Conservative leader of North Yorkshire county council, said he thought it was time for a leadership election, blaming Boris Johnson squarely for heavy losses in the local election.

“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,” said Les.

The North Yorkshire Tories had gone from 55 seats to 47, going from 75% of the total seats to just 52%, he said. The heaviest losses were in affluent metropolitan areas such as Harrogate, where the Liberal Democrats are now the biggest party.

Asked how local members viewed Johnson, he said: “There are a number of people who think the PM should resign and we should have a leadership election and personally I would support that.” Sunak, his local MP, was his choice for leader, he added.

In Sunderland, where the Conservatives were said to have “thrown the kitchen sink” at winning seats off Labour in the local elections but made no gains, the local Tory group leader said Johnson had become an electoral liability and that it was now “almost guaranteed that he will lose the next general election”.

Antony Mullen said he would not be surprised if Johnson survived the most serious test of his leadership to date, given his ability to wriggle out of difficulties in the past.

But he added: “If Conservative MPs are happy to defend what he’s done and lose their seat as a result of it, then that’s fair enough.

“But I think a lot of them will come quickly to the conclusion that they quite like being MPs and would like to have a future in parliament – and that isn’t possible with him as leader.”

Andy Morgan, a senior Conservative councillor and cabinet member in Bolton, said he didn’t think it was the right time for Johnson to go but that public support was clearly waning.

“The polls are suggesting that [the public] aren’t happy at the moment, so he’s either going to have to pull something out of the bag and make them happy or he’s going to have to think again. As in, he has to do something to get the trust back into politics,” he said.

“There’s fundamentally something going wrong at the centre and it needs to be sorted. He has suggested he is doing that and has sorted his staff out and the culture within No 10 but he now has to demonstrate that is the case to the public.”

Morgan has little enthusiasm for policies such as bringing back pounds and ounces, which he sees as “an irrelevant distraction”. He wants the Conservatives to “knuckle down and do what they have been elected to do by the public”, particularly on the cost of living crisis.

Mike Bird, the Conservative leader of Walsall council, said it would be a mistake to get rid of Johnson given the war in Ukraine and the soaring cost of living.

Bird said people were “sick and tired” of Partygate and that he wanted the government to provide more help for people struggling financially.

“People are more concerned about how they pay their electricity bills, gas bills and shopping bills. People are quite genuinely seriously concerned, and so am I,” he said.

“Both Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson, and all MPs, ought to realise that they don’t live in a cocoon down in Westminster. They need to address the issues facing the cost of living crisis … that’s more important than tea and cakes. I hope [last week’s mini-budget] was the first of the steps that are required to assist those people.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese Tech Giants Halt Stablecoin Launches After Beijing’s Regulatory Intervention
Manhattan Jury Holds BNP Paribas Liable for Enabling Sudanese Government Abuses
Trump Orders Immediate Release of Former Congressman George Santos After Commuting Prison Sentence
S&P Downgrades France’s Credit Rating, Citing Soaring Debt and Political Instability
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
Diane Keaton’s Cause of Death Revealed as Pneumonia, Family Confirms
Former Lostprophets Frontman Ian Watkins Stabbed to Death in British Prison
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Outsider, Heroine, Trailblazer: Diane Keaton Was Always a Little Strange — and Forever One of a Kind
Dramatic Development in the Death of 'Mango' Founder: Billionaire's Son Suspected of Murder
Two Years of Darkness: The Harrowing Testimonies of Israeli Hostages Emerging From Gaza Captivity
EU Moves to Use Frozen Russian Assets to Buy U.S. Weapons for Ukraine
Europe Emerges as the Biggest Casualty in U.S.-China Rare Earth Rivalry
HSBC Confronts Strategic Crossroads as NAB Seeks Only Retail Arm in Australia Exit
U.S. Chamber Sues Trump Over $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Shenzhen Expo Spotlights China’s Quantum Step in Semiconductor Self-Reliance
China Accelerates to the Forefront in Global Nuclear Fusion Race
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
Australia’s Wedgetail Spies Aid NATO Response as Russian MiGs Breach Estonian Airspace
McGowan Urges Chalmers to Cut Spending Over Tax Hike to Close $20 Billion Budget Gap
Victoria Orders Review of Transgender Prison Placement Amid Safety Concerns for Female Inmates
U.S. Treasury Mobilises New $20 Billion Debt Facility to Stabilise Argentina
French Business Leaders Decry Budget as Macron’s Pro-Enterprise Promise Undermined
Trump Claims Modi Pledged India Would End Russian Oil Imports Amid U.S. Tariff Pressure
Surging AI Startup Valuations Fuel Bubble Concerns Among Top Investors
Australian Punter Archie Wilson Tears Up During Nebraska Press Conference, Sparking Conversation on Male Vulnerability
Australia Confirms U.S. Access to Upgraded Submarine Shipyard Under AUKUS Deal
“Firepower” Promised for Ukraine as NATO Ministers Meet — But U.S. Tomahawks Remain Undecided
Brands Confront New Dilemma as Extremists Adopt Fashion Labels
The Sydney Sweeney and Jeans Storm: “The Outcome Surpassed Our Wildest Dreams”
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
×