The resignation of Dowden is the real bad news for PM

The resignation of Oliver Dowden as Conservative Party chair is more significant than the party's double defeat in Thursday's byelections in Tiverton and Honiton and Wakefield. It matters because someone in the cabinet has finally had the courage to stand up to Boris Johnson.

- ANDREW GRICE

Dowden is a mild-mannered, self-effacing figure who never looked happy waging culture war from Tory HQ and who hoped to become education secretary. He was an effective backroom operator in Downing Street under David Cameron. That this ultimate loyalist pointedly pledged his loyalty to his party rather than Johnson in his unexpected resignation letter speaks volumes.

If the 148 Tory backbenchers who voted against Johnson in this month’s confidence vote had held fire until after the byelections, they could have ousted him next week. But the coup never was a coup; it was individuals making their own minds up, making Johnson’s loss of seven out of 10 Tory backbenchers all the more remarkable. Only 32 Tories need to change sides to bring him down.

On a single day, the two by-elections blew out of the water Johnson’s case for staying on: only he can recreate the coalition in the red and blue walls that won him a thumping 80-seat majority at the 2019 election. Both walls are now at risk from a pincer movement by Labour and the Liberal Democrats in the north and south respectively.