Boris Johnson was locked in a unprecedented standoff with his own cabinet on Wednesday, as he clung to power after an extraordinary day that saw almost 40 resignations and scores of backbenchers withdrawing their support.
The prime minister seemed determined to fight on despite a delegation of senior cabinet ministers, including home secretary, Priti Patel, and transport secretary, Grant Shapps, personally urging him to resign.
A Downing Street source said he wants to stay and fight. It is not quite as Doomsday as people were thinking a few hours ago. He is naturally immovable in terms of his bullishness. He will say millions of people voted for me only two years ago and I'm going to fight this to the end. Johnson believed he could press ahead with his preferred economic policies but Rishi Sunak, who was skeptical about the need for tax cuts, had stepped aside, according to the source.
Shapps, who made the number-crunching for Johnson's leadership bid, is understood to have told the prime minister that he could not win a second confidence vote. He told the prime minister he must make a more dignified exit than that, and should set his own timetable for his departure. Johnson disagreed.
Another cabinet minister confirmed that Johnson had told them he had no intention of stepping down despite haemorrhaging support throughout the day.
Sajid Javid, who left health secretary on Tuesday night, used his resignation speech to urge others to do the same. His statement came after Johnson took a defiant tone, despite a slew of resignations that continued throughout the day.
Five ministers, including Tory rising star Kemi Badenoch and levelling up minister Neil O Brien, resigned at one point in the early afternoon.
Their boss, Michael Gove, told Johnson face to face that his position was unsustainable, and it would be better for him to leave on his own terms rather than be forced out in the coming days.
The nominations for a vote next Monday could open the way for a rule change that allows a second vote of no confidence in Johnson as soon as next week, according to the executive of the powerful backbench 1922 committee.
During the prime minister's questions alone, three of Johnson's MPs called for him to go. Birmingham MP Gary Sambrook accused the prime minister of playing down Chris Pincher's behaviour by telling MPs in the Commons tearoom that his victim was drunk.
Labour leader Keir Starmer called Johnson's remaining cabinet members the charge of the lightweight brigade, as he attacked him for appointing Pincher as deputy whip despite knowing that he behaved inappropriately to a junior colleague when he was a Foreign Office minister in 2019.
Johnson apologised for appointing Pincher, saying he regretted it, but went on to wrongly claim that he had immediately removed the whip when he heard about Pincher's behaviour, when in fact it took him a day to do so.