Rishi Sunak facing SIX new no confidence letters as Tory anger at PM rises

Tory MPs are putting in no confidence letters according to one backbencher

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Millie Cooke

By Millie Cooke


Published: 15/11/2023

- 11:22

Updated: 15/11/2023

- 12:21

Dame Andrea Jenkyns was the first Tory MP to go public with a no confidence letter

Half a dozen more Tories are set to submit letters of no confidence in Rishi Sunak today, a Conservative MP has told GB News.

Speaking immediately after the Supreme Court ruled that the Government's Rwanda migration plan was illegal, Dame Andrea Jenkyns said a growing number of her colleagues wanted a change in leadership.


WATCH: Andrea Jenkyns says six more letters of no confidence to go in 

Jenkyns submitted a letter of no confidence of her own earlier this week after Suella Braverman was sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle.

She told GB News: "After Suella's letter yesterday, and obviously there was voting last night, I spoke to several colleagues and I know six who have said to me they are putting letters in today."

She added: "They seemed quite adamant, the ones I spoke to."

Asked whether she thinks the answer is to "topple another prime minister" ahead of the general election, Jenkyns said she thinks the party needs to "bite the bullet".

She said: "I've really wrestled with this. I've had lots of constituents contact me, who are really frustrated. And actually, when I put my letter in I had hundreds of people from all over the country saying 'thank you for doing this'.

"But I wrestled with this in the fact that we could look very stupid in toppling another leader. But I think we've got to bite the bullet."

Former Cabinet minister Simon Clarke said he could submit a letter of no confidence over the Rwanda ruling, saying the Prime Minister's response to the ruling is a "confidence issue in his judgement as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party".

Sunak has called a Downing Street press conference this afternoon, taking place at 4.45pm, to respond to the damning ruling.

In this morning's judgement, all five justices unanimously agreed with the Court of Appeal’s conclusion that the Rwanda policy was unlawful.

Delivering his judgement, Lord Reed noted that "the court of appeal was right to overturn the high court's decision and to consider the evidence again for itself".

He cited concerns about "media and political freedom", the country's "poor human rights record" and a "misunderstanding of its obligations under the Refugee Convention".

Lord Reed said the “legal test” in the case was whether there were “substantial grounds” for believing that asylum seekers sent to Rwanda would be at “real risk” of being sent back to the countries they came from where they could face “ill treatment”.

He said: “In the light of the evidence which I have summarised, the Court of Appeal concluded that there were such grounds.

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Suella Braverman

Jenkyns submitted a letter of no confidence of her own earlier this week after Suella Braverman was sacked in a Cabinet reshuffle

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“We are unanimously of the view that they were entitled to reach that conclusion. Indeed, having been taken through the evidence ourselves, we agree with their conclusion.”

The decision is a major blow to the Government, which had been relying on the pact as the crux of its plan to slash illegal migration figures.

It comes just one day after former Home Secretary Suella Braverman accused Rishi Sunak of a "betrayal" over his failure to stop the boats.

Braverman claimed Sunak "rejected" available options she presented to him, such as "blocking off" the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

Meanwhile, a group of 2019 Tory MPs, the New Conservatives, published a stinging letter yesterday expressing concern that the party has strayed from the mission it was elected for. In a joint letter, Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger accused the Prime Minister of "walking away from 2019 voters".

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