reports Adam Forrest for The Independent

Conservative MP Dominic Grieve claimed the Queen would “have to sack” Boris Johnson if he lost a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons.

The prime minister’s senior adviser Dominic Cummings responded by saying MPs “don’t get to choose which votes they respect”. Mr Cummings also dismissed claims of arrogance, stating: “I don’t know very much about very much.”

Tory grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind also warned the PM he could trigger “the gravest constitutional crisis since the Civil War” if he refused to step down in a no-confidence vote scenario.

KEY POINTS

• Tory rebel Dominic Grieve claims the Queen could sack Boris Johnson
• Dominic Cummings responds by admitting he ‘doesn’t know very much about very much’
• Senior Tory warns of ‘gravest’ constitutional crisis since Civil War
• John McDonnell called ‘imbecile’ for defying party policy on indyref2
• Dover lorry drivers face ’48 hour queues’ if no deal happens
• Haulers hit out at HMRC over ‘incoherent’ communication with traders

• Tory MP Dominic Grieve, having said last month he did not wish to involve Her Majesty in the sordid business of Brexit, has claimed it could soon be time for the Queen to kick out the PM – if he defies a no-confidence vote. “He would have to resign … if he didn’t resign and there was an alternative government presented which had the support of the House of Commons, in extremis the Queen would have to sack him,” he told Channel 4 News.“I’ve no desire to see the Queen brought into politics, it’s an invidious position, but we are ultimately in this country a constitutional monarchy. “The Queen isn’t a decorative extra. She actually has a number of key reserve powers, and one of them is the prerogative of appointing prime ministers and getting rid of prime ministers who no longer have the support of the House of Commons.”

• Tory grandee Sir Malcolm Rifkind has warned the prime minister he could trigger “the gravest constitutional crisis since the actions of Charles I led to the Civil War” if he refused to step down in such a scenario. In a letter to The Times, Sir Malcom wrote: “I have great confidence that the prime minister will ignore the advice of Dominic Cummings. King Charles lost his head by flouting the constitution. Mr Johnson will wish to keep his, while some around him are, clearly, losing theirs.”

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