(Bloomberg) --

Boris Johnson’s removal from office by party members is “inevitable,” a prominent member of the British prime minister’s Conservative party told the Observer.

“It is going to end in him going, so I just want him to have some agency in that,” Charles Walker told the Sunday newspaper in an interview. Walker is a former vice-chairman of the party’s influential 1922 Committee.

Johnson is facing a growing Tory rebellion over reports of parties in Downing Street during lockdown as members of parliament submit confidential letters to the committee calling for his removal as party leader. If the total reaches 54 -- or 15% of the party’s MPs -- it will trigger a no-confidence vote in the premier. 

The Sunday Times said Johnson is preparing for a vote as soon as this week, with his advisers estimating the current total stands between 35 and 45, and others predicting more than 50.

Johnson has told allies he is determined to cling to power, according to the Sunday Times. The paper quotes an unidentified senior adviser as saying, “They’ll have to send a Panzer division to get him out of there.”

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