Boris Johnson will “never” resign and thinks he has a “God-given right to rule in perpetuity”, the prime minister’s ex-girlfriend has said.
Petronella Wyatt, who had a four-year affair with Mr Johnson while working at the Spectator magazine, said government would grind to a halt and “every minute of the day will be devoted to saving Boris”.
It comes as over a dozen Tory MPs, including the chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid, quit the government urging the prime minister to step down over his conduct.
Mr Johnson has refused to resign despite a litany of claims that he has misled the country over the handling of an alleged sexual abuse case involving a top Tory.
The PM narrowly avoided being forced out in a vote of no confidence last month after being fined for breaking lockdown rules, and was thought to be safe from ousting for another year under Tory rules.
But frustrated Conservative MPs are now set to meet on Wednesday evening to change no confidence procedures to allow another vote to take place immediately.
If this goes ahead Mr Johnson could be forced out by the summer recess or as early as next week – but calls for him to do the right thing and quit on his own accord continue.
Yet in a post on social media Ms Wyatt, now a writer and broadcaster, warned that the prime minister was certain to remain in post for as long as possible.
“Boris will never resign. He thinks he has a God given right to rule in perpetuity,” she said.
“This is going to be long, drawn out and very bad for the Tory Party and the country. There will be no government, as every minute of the day will be devoted to saving Boris.”
As her ex-boyfriend faced a no-confidence vote from MPs last month Ms Wyatt said claimed that Mr Johnson was “surprisingly thin-skinned” and would be in “absolute hell” after Tory MPs turned on him.
Mr Johnson was sacked from the Tory front bench in 2004 for lying about his affair with Ms Wyatt, which happened when he was married to his second wife Marina Wheeler.
He had dismissed the allegations of an affair as an “inverted pyramid of piffle” and assured his boss, then Tory leader Michael Howard they were untrue.
But the relationship became public knowledge after Ms Wyatt’s mother revealed that her daughter had become pregnant by Mr Johnson, and terminated the pregnancy. Mr Johnson was reported to have paid for the abortion.
It was the second time the now prime minister had been sacked for lying, having previously lost his job at the Times newspaper for inventing a quote.
Today, Mr Johnson faces losing his job as prime minister for not telling the truth about how he handled allegations of sexual abuse by a Tory MP.
Downing Street had claimed that the PM was unaware of specific serious allegations against Chris Pincher before he appointed the Tamworth MP deputy chief whp.
But No 10 was contradicted in a sensational intervention by Lord McDonald, a former top civil servant, who said Mr Johnson had in fact been personally briefed on the specific allegations. The prime minister later accepted he had been briefed and said his claims to know nothing were a mistake.
