Dame Andrea Jenkyns says she is hopeful fellow Tory MPs will follow her lead by lodging no confidence votes in Rishi Sunak.
The former minister submitted her letter of no confidence to the Tory backbench 1922 Committee as a result of his decision to axe Suella Braverman.
She told GB News that axing Sunak is likely to prove vital in the Tories’ bid to stave off Keir Starmer being handed the keys to Number 10.
Asked whether other MPs are likely to hand in votes of no confidence, she commented: “I hope so.”
GB NEWS / REUTERS
She added: “We’re fighting for our country now. Not only for conservatism but we’re trying to stop Keir Starmer getting into Number 10. We cannot do that with Sunak.
“We’ve had a year of Rishi Sunak and we’re haemorrhaging votes. He’s not a Conservative to me.
“I don’t agree that us to the right are just a wing of the party. If you look at our core vote, we’re more in tune.”
Asked who she would like to see take over the reins of the party leadership, Jenkyns said the one name she would not like to see put forward is Kemi Badenoch.
In a scathing rant, she branded her “the great pretender”, accusing her of shifting position in a bid to gain power.
After submitting her letter, Jenkyns said: “If it wasn’t bad enough that we have a party leader that the party members rejected, the polls demonstrate that the public reject him, and I am in full agreement. It is time for Rishi Sunak to go.”
She said that Braverman “was the only person in the cabinet with the balls to speak the truth of the appalling state of our streets and a two-tier policing system that leaves Jewish community in fear for their lives and safety”.
She is not the only Tory to have criticised the move, with former treasurer Lord Cruddas saying “the coup is complete, remain has won and democracy has lost.”
Suella Braverman was sacked as Home SecretaryPAIn perhaps the most shocking move of the reshuffle, former Prime Minister David Cameron stepped into the role of Foreign Secretary.
The position had been left vacant after James Cleverly moved over into Suella Braverman’s previous position of Foreign Secretary.
Lord Cameron said he has resigned from all his jobs to take the role as Foreign Secretary, as he faced questions over the Greensill affair, in which he privately lobbied ministers in an attempt to win Greensill Capital access to an emergency coronavirus loan scheme.
In his first interview since returning to frontline politics, Lord Cameron said: “As far as I am concerned, that is all dealt with and in the past. I now have one job, as Britain’s Foreign Secretary.”
He also insisted he would be held to account in the House of Lords and to select committees after Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle raised concerns that MPs will not be able to question him in the House because he is a peer.
Despite pressure from some Tory MPs for a radical tax-cutting change in the approach to the economy, Jeremy Hunt remains as Chancellor ahead of next week’s autumn statement.
