There is “no question” of Boris Johnson standing down over the partygate row according to one of his closest allies.
Conor Burns, the Northern Ireland Minister, said the Prime Minister would not be ousted, despite a growing rebellion within his own party.
Tobias Ellwood, a senior Tory MP, said this morning that it was now a matter of when, not if, the PM is replaced.
However Mr Burns defended him, arging that there had always been some MPs who were against his leadership from the start.
Speaking to the Today programme, he said: "There are a number of colleagues across Parliament who have never really supported the Prime Minister.
“If the Prime Minister stepped off Westminster Bridge and walked on top of the water they would say he couldn’t swim. That is a fact.
“The reality is that it is is only two years ago since we won a majority of 80 seats, the biggest majority since Margaret Thatcher in 1987.
“What the Prime Minister is saying is ‘I led you to that victory, I have got business I want to do’.
“What he has also said is that the events in Downing Street and the fine has actually redoubled his determination to rebuild the bonds of trust with the British people.”
He added: "There is no question of the Prime Minister going".
Meanwhile Mr Ellwood, a former minister and chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, said there was a growing realisation in the party that things cannot continue as they are.
He predicted there will be a “steady trickle” of letters from Tory MPs to Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, calling for a leadership contest.
“We must stop drinking the Kool-Aid that’s encouraging us to think this is all going to disappear and that we can all move on,” he told Sky News.
“I’m afraid the absence of discipline, of focus and leadership in Number 10 during that lockdown period has led to a huge breach of trust with the British people.
“So it’s beholden upon all Conservative MPs then to take matters into their own hands, and I think this is where things will go, particularly as we have more bad news to follow.
Yesterday the Government was forced in to a chaotic u-turn, when it withdrew its amendment to a Labour motion calling for the PM's comments to the Commons be investigated.
It has been claimed that six government ministers said they would not support the amendment, which wnould have delayed an inquiry.
Now the Prime Minister faces a Commons inquiry by MPs, the Sue Gray report and could be fined further by the Met as they continue their investigation into lockdown breaking parties across Whitehall.
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