Boris Johnson leadership challenge: Tory whips have a plan to block new attempt to unseat PM

Boris Johnson has a year's protection from another leadership challenge after he won a confidence vote earlier this month, but that protection could be changed. Photo / Getty Images

Boris Johnson's allies are scrambling to thwart a new leadership challenge, The Telegraph can reveal, by trying to block a change in party rules.

Tory whips are already planning how to get pro-Johnson MPs onto the 1922 Committee executive when its elections are held, expected next month.

The Prime Minister has a year's protection from another leadership challenge after he won a confidence vote earlier this month, in which 41 per cent of Tory MPs voted for his removal.

However, those rules, which are governed by senior figures on the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, can be changed. It is set to become the next battleground for Tory rebels.

There are 18 Conservative MPs in senior roles on the 1922 Committee. A majority of that group can remove the year-long protection if wanted, meaning the make-up of the group is critical.

The Telegraph understands that elections for all of the positions are expected to be held before Parliament rises on July 21, and the roles are set to be fiercely contested.

A Conservative whip told The Telegraph they were planning to quietly sound out pro-Johnson candidates to run for the positions, in a move to better protect him from a rule change.

They plan to order the almost 50 Tory MPs who are Parliamentary Private Secretaries - meaning on the Government payroll - to vote for their favoured candidates.

The plot to use MPs in government jobs to tilt the make-up of the body that decides leadership election rules in the Prime Minister's favour is already triggering a backlash among Tory rebels.

Downing Street will not attempt to oust Sir Graham Brady, the 1922 Committee chairman who has served under three Tory prime ministers, according to two senior Tory sources.

That is an acceptance of the strength of Sir Graham's position. An attempt to replace him with a candidate favoured by the Government last year failed.

But Downing Street is already being warned of intervening in any way in the 1922 Committee elections, which are expected to be held on one of the first three Wednesdays of July.

A Tory whips source rejected claims there was a plot to protect Johnson underway by influencing the 1922 elections, calling the allegations "untrue".

One senior 1922 source said: "Given the confidence vote and everything that has gone on it would be very risky to start interfering in the process. They would be very foolish to interfere in the backbench processes."

A second 1922 source said it would be "unwise" for the whips to push a slate of loyalists as they would soon be branded "stooges", adding: "Backbenchers don't like stooge candidates."

Attempts to counter any interference are already underway. A Tory who wants Johnson ousted said: "The non-Boris clique group is ensuring that everyone is aware of who the independents are and who are the government stooges."

It remains unclear when a rule change may be attempted. Earlier this month even those trying to get rid of the Prime Minister accepted that a push to remove his year-long protection would likely have to wait until the autumn.

Such a tipping point could come if the privileges committee decides the Prime Minister had deliberately misled Parliament over the "partygate" saga when its work gets underway, expected to be in September.

The elections will be held for 18 senior positions in the 1922 Committee - six officers and 12 members of the Executive.

The ballot is open to all members of the Conservative Parliamentary party apart from the 95 ministers on the so-called "payroll vote" who receive a government salary.

A further 47 Tory MPs who are also Parliamentary Private Secretaries, 20 MPs who are trade envoys and an unknown number of vice chairs - none of whom is paid - can vote in the election.