Three desertions after the loss of the Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield by-elections would mean Johnson’s effective majority in the Commons would be reduced by 10, which would significantly facilitate the Conservative rebels to defeat the Government.
It would be the biggest dropout from the Conservatives since 2019, when Heidi Allen, Anna Soubry and Sarah Wollaston joined Change UK. The latter two lost their seats in the 2019 election, while Ms Allen chose not to run again.
Johnson, who has come down to the polls and struggled to recover from the party scandal of recent months, said Monday he believed he had a “new term” to lead the Conservatives because he had won the vote of confidence.
Speaking at the G7 summit in Germany, he said he was “1,000 percent focused” on delivering a “massive and massive agenda” for the country and that he was not considering his position. He added: “No one abandons a privilege like this.”
On Monday, two Conservative MPs who had been widely thought to have considered desertion denied they planned to cross the terrain.
Bishop Auckland MP Dehenna Davison said: “For the avoidance of doubt, again, I am not deserting. For those anonymous colleagues who spread these rumors, my door is always open to chat.”
Caroline Nokes, a senior MP who has been critical of Mr Johnson in recent months, said: “Neither do I, just to put it on the record.”
The news that three Conservative MPs could cross paths after the desertion of Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP, in January.