HE CAN'T GO ON

GROPERGATE LATEST: FINALLY

- PIPPA CRERAR

EVEN Boris Johnson's most blinkered allies "know it's all over" for him, a Tory MP says.

The Prime Minister was left seriously wounded last night after Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid quit the Cabinet.

Nadhim Zahawi spent two hours with the PM before emerging as the new Chancellor, while Steve Barclay replaced Javid as Health Secretary and Michelle Donelan was promoted to Zahawi's old job in Education.

Sunak and Javid had launched their coup amid fury over Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.

The resignations came within minutes of the PM finally admitting it was a "mistake" to appoint his ally Pincher as Deputy Chief Whip.

And it brought a scathing putdown from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon who said: "the whole rotten lot need to go," while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for a General Election.

The Partygate scandal had left Johnson in the last chance saloon with many of his MPs.

Senior Tories were last night saying the PM is fatally damaged and would be gone by the weekend.

Some loyalists such as Deputy PM Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Housing Secretary Michael Gove are sticking by him for now.

One angry Tory MP broke ranks, saying: "If he had any decency then he'd resign, but he won't.

"The Cabinet know it's over but they keep propping him up.

Tories believe that if Johnson refuses to quit, the backbench 1922 Committee may change the rules to allow another confidence vote in him in the coming months.