The Prime Minister hit back: “I don’t know what he’s talking about… I take full responsibility for everything done in this pandemic and throughout the pandemic.”
After the sensational session ended, Mr Johnson announced to MPs that Plan B measures aimed at tackling the spread of Covid-19 are to be dropped across England.
He declared that people will no longer be told to work from home and, from Thursday next week when Plan B restrictions lapse, mandatory Covid passports will end. Face masks will no longer be mandatory in public indoor settings either, he confirmed.
Defection may have backfired
While the twin blows of a defection and a public demand for his resignation made for bad headlines, Tory frontbenchers said Mr Wakeford and Mr Davis had unwittingly done Mr Johnson a favour.
One minister insisted it had “given the PM a big break”, arguing: “It has united the party. I doubt anything more will happen now [on a no confidence vote] until at least after the Gray report. David Davis was desperate to make the news about himself and couldn’t be less popular.”
Meanwhile defence minister Leo Docherty reportedly called Mr Davis a “traitor” in the Commons tea room.
One former minister commented: “I think everyone prices in David Davis. He’s become a sort of Ken Clarke figure. I don’t know why he felt he had to do that.
“Similarly I think a lot of the youngsters feel personally betrayed by Wakeford. If anything it has probably fuelled a bit of solidarity.”
Other Conservative MPs openly opined that Mr Wakeford’s exit from the party may have backfired. Jake Berry, the Tory chairman of the Northern Research Group, branded it a “unifying moment” for the 2019 intake.
Mr Berry, who has been a staunch critic of Mr Johnson in the past, added: “I think really that demonstrates, actually, that parties that don’t stick together end up losing elections, and I think it’s a timely reminder for colleagues to get behind the Prime Minister.”
Fellow Tory Red Wall MP Lee Anderson took a more hardline approach to his colleague’s exit from the party, telling GB News: “I’d like to say I’m surprised, but if anyone was going to defect it’d be Christian Wakeford – ‘Wokeford’, as we call him in that place over there.
“He’s been very vocal in his non-support of the Prime Minister, he’s upset colleagues quite a few times with some of his tweets and his messages and I say good riddance to bad rubbish.”
Mr Wakeford’s defection also provoked division in the Labour party. Young Labour, which sits significantly further to the Left than the leadership, heaped criticism on the move.
The group tweeted that he “should not be admitted to the Labour Party” and stressed that they did “not welcome him”.
“He has consistently voted against the interests of working-class people; for the £20 universal credit cut, for the Nationality and Borders Bill and for the Police and Crime Bill,” the group said.
