Between three and seven letters of no confidence were withdrawn on Wednesday night by Conservative MPs apprehensive about booting Boris Johnson out of Number 10.
Senior sources in the Government whip’s office told The Telegraph that they knew of three no-confidence letters in Mr Johnson that had been submitted to the 1922 chairman Sir Graham Brady, and then withdrawn.
It came as William Wragg, the Tory chairman of a Parliamentary scrutiny committee, claimed that MPs opposed to the Prime Minister were subject to “pressures and intimidation” in the wake of the Downing Street party scandal.
His claims were supported by Mr Wakeford, who alleged that he was threatened with no new school in Radcliffe in his constituency unless he voted “one particular way” in the Commons.
A former government minister and senior Tory MP, who is not seen as an ally of the Prime Minister, said that he knew of seven letters being withdrawn.
Conservative MPs are entitled to submit letters and then withdraw them under the arcane rules that govern the 1922 committee, effectively the ruling body for backbench Conservatives.
The turning point appears to have been the decision of the former Tory MP Christian Wakeford to defect to Labour, which brought some disaffected MPs in from the cold.
One told The Telegraph: “Wakeford has saved Boris.”
Christian Wakeford, the MP for Bury South who was elected in 2019, crossed the floor and joined the Labour Party in a dramatic intervention minutes before Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
A number of Conservatives withdrawing their letters later that day suggests his defection had focused minds amid a public backlash from other members of the 2019 intake of ‘Red Wall’ MPs to Mr Wakeford’s decision.
