Boris Johnson should hold a vote of confidence to confirm his leadership after the conclusion of the police investigation into parties at No 10 and if local elections go badly for the Conservatives, a Tory MP said.
The Chair of the Commons Defence Committee, Tobias Ellwood, warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin could exploit the prime minister's image as a law-breaker after the fixed-penalty notices for attending parties in No 10.
Ellwood, MP for Bournemouth East, told BBC Radio 4 s Today programme: I think the prime minister has made his intentions clear and he wants to stay but this is bigger than the prime minister. He said that Johnson owed it to the parliamentary party to hold a vote of confidence since the scandal has harmed the party's reputation.
He said that the Partygate scandal undermined the UK's image as a beacon of democracy by eroding the high standards that politicians have set themselves and historically upheld.
He warned that Putin will no doubt exploit how a lawmaker can be a lawbreaker? This is not a good look. Ellwood said that Johnson should resign now because the war in Ukraine was likely to continue for some time, and it was not unusual for leaders to be replaced in times of crisis, citing the replacement of the UK's head of thearmed forces in December with an admiral with no combat experience.
He said that European security is going to deteriorate well beyond Ukraine every month.
Our formidable government apparatus, our well-oiled MoD Ministry of Defence machine, allows us to replace people if that is required. Our approach to Ukraine would be consistent, so I hope that we won't use the war as a fig leaf to dodge these tough questions that absolutely must be addressed. The Scottish National Party's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, said Johnson's position was no longer tenable. He told BBC Radio 4 s Today programme: I think the court of public opinion will give that judgment on the prime minister.
Everyone knows that parties were taking place at 10 Downing Street, and everyone knows that the prime minister has been convicted.
We can talk about the parliamentary procedure and the fact that he broke the ministerial code as a result of his behaviour. We have the first prime minister in history who has been found guilty of breaking the law. The prime minister is there to uphold the law first and foremost. It came after Conservative peer David Wolfson left his position as justice minister on Wednesday following the news that Johnson and Rishi Sunak had been given a fixed-penalty notice for breaking their own Covid laws by attending a party for the prime minister's birthday in No 10.
Wolfson said he was resigning not only because of the prime minister's conduct but also because of the official response to what took place. He said the behaviour stood in stark contrast to many in society who complied with the rules at great personal cost, and others were fined or prosecuted for similar, and sometimes apparently more trivial offences.