Dominic Raab, Liz Truss and Priti Patel were among Cabinet ministers standing by Boris Johnson on Tuesday night as the government implodes.
The prime minister has been hit by a slew of senior resignations including chancellor Rishi Sunak and health secretary Sajid Javid.
Mr Sunak said said the public expected “government to be conducted properly, competently and seriously” as he quit over the Chris Pincher affair.
And in an incendiary letter, Mr Javid said the British people “expect integrity from their government” but now believed Mr Johnson was neither competent nor “acting in the national interest”.
Other MPs to quit government roles so far include Andrew Murrison, Jonathan Gullis and Saqib Bhatti.
As Westminster braced for more resignations, several of the prime minister’s colleagues have indicated that they will be standing by him.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, who is viewed as a potential leadership candidate, said she was “100% behind the PM”, according to the BBC.
The Press Association news agency meanwhile quoted a source close to deputy prime minister Dominic Raab who said he was “loyal” to Mr Johnson.
And an ally of Home Secretary Priti Patel told the same news agency: “She’s staying”.
A source close to Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, who has been tipped as a potential successor to the PM, also said: “The Defence Secretary is not resigning.”
An aide to Michael Gove meanwhile told The Sun newspaper that Michael Gove would not be resigning as levelling-up secretary.
And Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, a close ally of the prime minister, said: “I’m not sure anyone actually doubted this, however, I am 100% behind Boris Johnson, the PM who consistently gets all the big decisions right.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg took to the airwaves to defend the prime minister, stating that he had made only “a minor mistake”.
As of 7pm on Tuesday most of the pledges of loyalty, with the exception of Ms Truss, Mr Rees-Mogg and Ms Dorries, had come through sources close to those MPs rather than emphatic on-the-record statements from them, however.
Mr Johnson’s premiership has been rocked by scandal after scandal since the autumn, including the Partygate revelations.
But it was the prime minister’s handling of allegations that his deputy chief whip had groped someone in a private members’ club that has put his leadership in danger.
Mr Johnson was accused of lying about what he knew about Chris Pincher’s record of allegations before he appointed the Tamworth MP to the senior governemnt role.
The Prime Minister’s authority had already been damaged by a confidence vote which saw 41 per cent of his MPs vote against him – but he did not quit.
