Wells MP James Heappey is remaining tight-lipped whether he will be supporting the Prime Minister in the no-confidence vote scheduled for this evening.

Boris Johnson will face a possible vote of confidence in his leadership as MPs return to Westminster today after the half-term break.

The threshold of 15 per cent - or 54 Conservative MPs or more - has been reached to trigger a vote of no confidence in the PM after the Partygate scandal.

As Minister of Defence, it is likely that Mr Heappey will be backing Mr Johnson, but he has not responded to requests for comment on his position.

But social media is full of calls for him to support the bid to remove the Prime Minister.

A ballot will be held between 6pm and 8pm this evening, Monday (June 6). The votes will be counted immediately and an announcement will be made at a time to be advised with more details to be released later today.

If Johnson survives the vote of confidence there will be a period of a year before another ballot could be held. The 58-year-old only needs to win the ballot by a single vote to remain in charge of the country - yet if even if the Eton-educated PM does win commentators believe that his leadership could still be threatened given what happened to previous incumbent Theresa May. Previous MP May won the ballot quite comfortably but rebels eventually forced her out of office within six months.

Further back, John Major faced a vote of no confidence in the mid 1990s - but despite wining he was routed at the 1997 General Election.

The procedure means the PM was advised of the situation yesterday. It is a believed that a number of Tory MPs asked that the news would be released after the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend. It is not known if Mr Heappey handed in a letter, nor requested that the news be withheld until this morning.