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Rishi Sunak had a private meeting with the chairman of the 1922 backbench committee on Monday, Sky News can reveal.

The prime minister saw Sir Graham Brady on Monday night on the margins of a scheduled 1922 executive meeting.

It comes amid concerns from growing numbers of MPs at the direction of the Tory party.

One source said they had heard senior backbenchers went to see Sir Graham over the weekend to express their views.

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Sir Graham Brady. File pic: PA
Image:
Sir Graham Brady. File pic: PA

Number 10 and Sir Graham have been contacted, but neither commented on the meeting.

However, a source confirmed the fact of the gathering and told Sky News the pair met “briefly”.

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Sir Graham, the long-time chair of the committee, can hold meetings with the PM and top government figures at important moments in their premiership.

He met Jeremy Hunt, the newly-appointed chancellor, in October 2022 in the final week of Liz Truss’s premiership.

Sir Graham will know how many letters of no confidence have been submitted and how close a vote in the PM’s leadership is to being triggered.

In light of the defection of Lee Anderson to Reform, the row over a donor’s reported language about Diane Abbott, the lacklustre reception of the budget and the continued massive poll deficit, Tory MPs are increasingly anxious about the direction of the party.

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Allies of Sunak say that 30-40 Conservative MPs want an election in May.

They say this is a different group to the troublemakers.

They added there was only a 2% chance of an election, and that key campaign figures had booked holidays over Easter.

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One Tory MP said they were 50/50 for a May election, and that most colleagues were of the same mind.

“There is argument for just ripping off the sticking plaster,” said one.

Another said a group were looking at forcing the PM into an early election by threatening a vote of no confidence in Mr Sunak after the local elections, when the Tories could lose a substantial number of councillors.

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Bybit’s Notcoin listing debacle, China firm’s profits up 1100% after crypto buy: Asia Express

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Bybit’s Notcoin listing debacle, China firm’s profits up 1100% after crypto buy: Asia Express

Bybit to compensate users after Notcoin listing debacle, China gaming firm’s profits up 1100% after $200M crypto buy, and more: Asia Express.

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‘Crypto King’ Aiden Pleterski faces fraud, money laundering charges

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<div>'Crypto King' Aiden Pleterski faces fraud, money laundering charges</div>

Pleterski and an associate were arrested months after multiple investor complaints and months of police investigation.

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Jeremy Hunt to promise further tax cuts as pre-general election battle hots up

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Jeremy Hunt to promise further tax cuts as pre-general election battle hots up

Jeremy Hunt will promise further tax cuts if the Tories win the next general election and will accuse the Labour Party of not being honest about how it will fund its spending pledges.

The chancellor will give a speech in London on Friday in which he will accuse his shadow, Rachel Reeves, of resorting to “playground politics” with her criticism of the high levels of taxation on UK households.

Mr Hunt will also reiterate his ambition to eradicate the national insurance tax – which the Tories have already slashed twice in a bid to move the polls – where they currently lag 20 points behind Labour.

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Labour has attacked the policy as an unfunded £46bn pledge and likened it to the policies that saw Liz Truss resign from office after just 44 days as prime minister.

The chancellor was previously forced to make clear that his desire to abolish the “unfair” national insurance tax would not happen “any time soon”.

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The chancellor described national insurance as a “tax on work” and said he believed it was “unfair that we tax work twice” when other forms of income are only taxed once.

The overall tax burden is expected to increase over the next five years to around 37% of gross domestic product – close to a post-Second World War high – but Mr Hunt will argue the furlough scheme brought in during the pandemic and the help the government gave households for heating both needed to be paid for.

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Last week: National Insurance to be axed ‘when it’s affordable’

“Labour like to criticise tax rises this parliament thinking people don’t know why they have gone up – the furlough scheme, the energy price guarantee and billions of pounds of cost-of-living support, policies Labour themselves supported,” he will say.

“Which is why it is playground politics to use those tax rises to distract debate from the biggest divide in British politics – which is what happens next.

“Conservatives recognise that whilst those tax rises may have been necessary, they should not be permanent. Labour do not.”

James Murray, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury, said: “There is nothing Jeremy Hunt can say or do to hide that fact that working people are worse off after 14 years of economic failure under the Conservatives.”

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