Inside the 1922 Committee showdown between Boris Johnson and Tory MPs

Boris Johnson said he would “do it again” over attending farewell events for colleagues during lockdowns, according to three Tory MPs who attended his 1922 Committee speech.

Addressing backbenchers on Monday afternoon at a private meeting ahead of the vote of confidence in his leadership, the Prime Minister made the comments while defending his personal conduct during the partygate saga.

The remark triggered a heated debate online about whether he was sufficiently remorseful about Downing Street parties during lockdown.

However, the three MPs who spoke to The Telegraph said that his comments were made specifically in relation to farewell events for officials and advisers at Number 10, which echoes his statement to the Commons.

Following the publication of the Sue Gray report, Mr Johnson said that he believed he was within the rules when he attended leaving parties for colleagues to “thank them for their service” which he said was “one of the essential duties of leadership”.

Addressing backbenchers in the Boothroyd Committee Room in Portcullis House on Monday afternoon, the Prime Minister’s mood was described as “very focused, very business-like, very upbeat” according to Tory party sources who said he was “pumped”.

Earlier in the day, Mr Johnson wrote to Tory MPs urging them to back him in the vote, saying it is an opportunity to “draw a line” under the issue.

During the 1922 committee meeting, he dismissed the focus on Conservative Party leadership as being “media driven”, saying: “If you give me your support tonight, we have the chance to stop talking about ourselves and start talking exclusively about what we are doing for the people of this country.”

He said instead of “getting into some hellish Groundhog Day debate about the merits of belonging to the Single Market, relitigating questions that we settled two-and-a-half years ago, we can get on, we can deliver and we can unite”.

He went on to remind MPs under his leadership, the Tory Party won the biggest electoral victory in four decades.

Mr Johnson said that Labour was “still in the pocket of the union barons” and wanted to keep the country “locked into EU regulations”.

PM vows to lead Tories to victory again

He also promised MPs that if they voted for him, he would win the next general election.

“I will lead you to victory again and the winners will be the people of this country,” he reportedly told his backbenchers.

He said it would only play into Labour’s hands if the Conservative Party members were “so foolish as to descend into some pointless fratricidal debate about the future of the party”.

According to a senior Tory party source, the Prime Minister got a “big cheer” as he said: “Let us refuse to dance to the tune of the media. Let us refuse to gratify our opponents by turning in on ourselves. Let’s show this country that we understand that this is a moment to unite and to serve”.

Two of the five questions that backbenchers asked the Prime Minister were hostile, according to those in the room.

Mark Harper, a former chief whip and an arch critic of Mr Johnson, spoke out against him, highlighting the importance of integrity and honesty, according to a Tory party source.

John Baron, the MP for Basildon and Billericay, who previously called for the Prime Minister to go following the Sue Gray report, told his colleagues that the rule-breaking was endemic and the denials were not credible.

Mr Johnson insisted that he would rebuild the trust he has lost, and reminded MPs that “we have been through bumpy times before”.

Meanwhile, supportive remarks came from Sir Charles Walker, the MP for Broxbourne, who reportedly said that “defenestrating the PM is a brutal, bloody shocking, horrible, terrible thing” and went to ask his colleagues: “Can you live with that?”

Sir John Hayes, a former minister and the chairman of the Common Sense Group of MPs, also spoke in support of Mr Johnson, saying that he won nearly 14 million votes, adding: “This party made its choice and so did the people at the general election.”

Simon Baynes, the MP for Clwyd South elected in 2019, talked about how hard it was to win a seat like that and said that after “25 years of hard work, let’s not throw it away”.

Following the meeting, James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister, said that the “vast bulk of the parliamentary party wants us to move on from this row” and instead to focus on “serving the people who elect us and also the position that we play in the world”.

Steve Baker, a rebel MP, emerged from the meeting reiterating his call for Mr Johnson to go, but said he thought it was “highly likely” that the Prime Minister would “formally win” the confidence vote.