Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) on X (original) (raw)

Political Editor BBC Newsnight

• 
  A group of senior Tories have been holding discussions + have decided the following: the sacking of @KwasiKwarteng will prompt them to come out publicly next week + call on
  @trussliz
  to resign. My source: “These are serious people. The PM will find it difficult to survive.”
• 
  The sacking of Michael Gove is not going down well in the Conservative party. One former Boris Johnson ally tells me: “Sacking Gove is revenge. But Boris is now detached from reality. He is now like Putin.”
• 
  One of Boris Johnson’s closest allies tells me: It will all be over by this time tomorrow. No PM can survive the resignation of two senior cabinet ministers like that
• 
  A spontaneous round of applause in ⁦
  @BBCNewsnight
  ⁩ studio after Betty Brown, 92, the oldest victim of the Post Office Horizon scandal, told ⁦
  @vicderbyshire
  ⁩ she won’t stop fighting until she wins back every penny that she says was stolen from her
• 
  A former cabinet minister tells me: “Brace for the mother of all U-Turns on the mini budget today. A friendly person in the know is advising us to steer clear of the media today to avoid the explosion. We wouldn’t want to look silly by tomorrow.” #waitandsee
• 
  A Tory grandee turned to a member of the 2019 intake of MPs, who may play a decisive role in deciding Boris Johnson’s future, to ask their thoughts on PM’s statement. The 2019er told their fellow MP that the PM’s statement was meaningless and it’s over for him
• 
  Nigel Dodds tells me the UK should stay in the EU if that was only way to preserve NI’s place in UK. ‘I would stay in the European Union and remain rather than risk Northern Ireland’s position. That’s how strongly I feel about the union.’
• 
  The former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has issued a statement in response to claims made about him by ⁦
  @elonmusk
  ⁩ ⁦
  @GordonBrown
  ⁩
• 
  A Conservative MP submitting a no confidence letter this afternoon to Sir Graham Brady tells me that will be one of two this afternoon. Both MPs due to go public
• 
  Break: Danny Kruger, former political secretary to Boris Johnson and now Conservative MP for Devizes, tells colleagues to stop demanding resignation of Dominic Cummings on the grounds that such calls are tantamount to a vote of no confidence in PM
  @danny__kruger
• 
  As Jo Swinson prepares to launch manifesto senior Tories fear Dominic Raab could be under pressure from Liberal Democrats in Esther and Walton. “The chat among Surrey Tories is that Dominic Raab could be in trouble,” a senior Tory tells me
  @joswinson@DominicRaab
• 
  One minister tells me there is no comparison between Boris Johnson winning tonight by a higher margin than Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Minister: “Key difference in 1990 Mrs Thatcher was up against an actual and credible candidate. Today was entirely a judgement on him. Far worse.”
• 
  Boris Johnson is touring the tea room…again
• 
  Some very long faces on supporters of
  @BorisJohnson
  after poll closed. One PM ally said of Tory MPs: They are a bunch of lying snakes. I don’t trust anything they say