When a rain-drenched Rishi Sunak shocked the nation by calling a snap general election, many thought he was being pushed by MPs demanding a confidence vote amid the dying embers of 14 years of Conservative rule.
But now Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee, has revealed he had only received 10 such “no confidence” letters – making Mr Sunak’s early announcement all the more risky.
The former prime minister was routed by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party in an election that resulted in the worst Conservative defeat ever recorded.
In his Kingmaker autobiography serialised in The Telegraph, Lord Brady said: “One problem with the system of using ‘letters’ to trigger a confidence vote is that the numbers must necessarily be kept confidential. In April 2024, the MP Simon Clarke briefed the press that ‘around 50’ letters of no-confidence in Rishi Sunak had been submitted.
“In fact, I had received nine.
“Most colleagues understood that, however frustrated they may have been, yet another change of leader would have made us look completely deranged.”
He paid tribute to Mr Sunak saying he only deserves criticism for his “excessive caution” as prime minister.
“Attacks on Sunak for his wealth – suggesting it made him ‘out of touch’ – couldn’t have been more wrong”, Lord Brady wrote.
“Those who have dealt with Rishi find him surprisingly normal. But maybe Rishi Sunak wasn’t enough of a politician: he made the mistake of being what people say they want, not what they actually vote for.”
There had been speculation at the time that Mr Sunak was only a few letters away from the 15% of Tory MPs needed to trigger a vote.
But Lord Brady revealed: “A rumour spread that Rishi had called the election because I had told him that he was about to face a confidence vote.
“I had given no such indication. As we headed off towards the smoke of battle, there were 10 letters sitting in my safe.”
The revelation came after Lord Brady said Mr Hunt warned him that, although Liz Truss knew she had to go after blaming Kwasi Karteng for a disastrous mini-budget, “she thinks she can promise to go in six months”.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson attacked Tory backbench critics of his former adviser, Dominic Cummings, as “spineless chicken s***” amid anger about his lockdown-era trip to Barnard Castle in County Durham, according to Lord Brady.
The former prime minister is alleged to have said: “I think backbench MPs have been contemptible! They have been spineless chicken s***. They need to develop some backbone.
“The 2019 guys need to understand that they wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Dom.”