Boris Johnson has been accused of copying the “dangerous” tactics of Donald Trump by refusing to quit even after losing the confidence of his MPs.
Former chief whip Julian Smith said the UK had been plunged into a “constitutional crisis” by the prime minister’s refusal to leave Downing Street following a string of cabinet and ministerial resignations.
Smith, who served in the top post under former prime minister Theresa May, said he believed Johnson was looking to replicate the chaos that ensued after Trump refused to the concede the US election after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.
The former chief whip told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I’m sure Boris Johnson ultimately will read the writing on the wall, but this morning he should not be in Downing Street.
“There are many young women and men who resigned from his government yesterday, there are many civil servants up in arms and I think he is now at a point where he has obviously looked across the water at what Trump did last year and decided that he wants to have some mini version in the UK and my point is that I think that’s very dangerous.
“He should not be there today, he should be there over the weekend.”
This morning Brandon Lewis became the fourth Cabinet minister to quit his post, saying he no longer believed the values of “honesty, integrity and mutual respect” were no long being upheld.
In his letter to the PM, Lewis said the Conservative Party has been “relentlessly on the defensive, consumed by introspection and in-fighting”.
“A divided party cannot win elections. It cannot deliver for those who trusted us with their votes for the first time in 2019.”
Lewis was shortly followed by Helen Whately, the exchequer secretary to the Treasury, security minister Damian Hinds and science minister George Freeman.
In all, more than 40 Tory MPs have quit the government since Tuesday night.
Despite the tsunami of resignations, Johnson struck a defiant tone with MPs and insisted: “The job of a prime minister in difficult circumstances, when you’ve been handed a colossal mandate, is to keep going.”
Smith said it was a “preposterous argument” to suggest the PM could continue given the personal mandate he secured in the 2019 general election.
“That was not a personal vote,” he said. “It was a vote for individual candidates across the country.
“He should not be there today. He should not be there over the weekend, he should not be waiting for more evidence. There cannot be any more evidence than happened yesterday.”