In the past couple of minutes, five ministers have resigned as a co-ordinated group and Michael Gove is reported to have told Boris Johnson in private that it’s time to go. Kemi Badenoch, Lee Rowley, Alex Burghart, Neil O’Brien and Julia Lopez have quit in a joint letter in which they call for Boris Johnson to step aside ‘for the good of the party, and the country’.

With great regret, I resigned from the government this morning. It has been an honour being Equalities and Local Government minister. It was a privilege to have worked with so many great ministerial colleagues and civil servants in these roles. pic.twitter.com/XkNfnzjQVX

— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) July 6, 2022

They are bright, ambitious MPs who could form the future of the party. They also make the government look as though it is not functioning, and is at risk of being populated with anyone Boris Johnson can find who wants to be a minister for five minutes, regardless of their suitability.

I have been speaking to senior Tories who were sympathetic to Johnson until the last few days. All agree that not only is the game up, but that it is imminently up. They expect someone close to the Prime Minister to go to him and tell him that it’s over. He is not, one says, psychologically there yet, but a gentle hand on the shoulder from someone, possibly deputy chief of staff David Canzini, should do it.