World

MOGADISHU — Arbay Mahad Qasim has already lost two children to a vicious drought, and now the Somali villager fears she could lose a third as her malnourished toddler Ifrah awaits treatment in a Mogadishu hospital.

Barely out of her teens, Qasim is among dozens of weary parents crowding Banadir Maternity & Children Hospital, which has become ground zero for the starvation crisis sweeping across Somalia as a record drought grips the Horn of Africa.

Entire villages have been forced to uproot their lives and flee their homes after poor rainfall destroyed crops and killed livestock.

When the rains failed for a fourth consecutive season last month, UN aid agencies and meteorologists warned that a famine was looming in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

But for many Somalis like Qasim, who has been surviving on government handouts for the past few months, catastrophe has already struck.

Two of her children died of hunger in the last 18 months.

When two-year-old Ifrah’s tiny body began to swell, showing symptoms of severe malnutrition, Qasim wasted no time, spending a day travelling to Mogadishu from her village in the southwest in a desperate bid to save her youngest child’s life.

‘Worst conditions’ 

The Banadir facility is packed with parents fearing the worst for their children.

Some have walked for days to find help, carrying their sick, skeletal toddlers on their backs.

Many told AFP they had never endured a crisis of such terrifying magnitude, echoing the warnings of climate scientists who say the unprecedented drought is the worst seen in four decades.

“The crops failed. We lost the livestock. The river dried up,” said Khadija Mohamed Hassan, whose 14-month-old son Bilal is among those admitted to the Banadir facility.

“I am 45 years old and I have never seen such a devastating drought ever in my life. We are living in the worst conditions of our time,” she told AFP.

Health workers are already overwhelmed, with doctor Hafsa Mohamed Hassan telling AFP that the number of patients arriving at Banadir’s stabilisation centre for malnutrition had trebled since the drought began, leading to a shortage of beds on some days.

“The cases we are receiving include children with other health complications like acute measles and others who are in a coma due to severe malnutrition,” she said.

The situation is at a tipping point, said Bishar Osman Hussein of the non-profit organisation Concern Worldwide, which has been supporting the Banadir centre since 2017.

“Between January and June this year, the number of children admitted at the Banadir Hospital stabilisation centre with severe malnutrition and other complications has increased from 120 to 230 per month,” he told AFP.

Meteorologists have warned that the October-November monsoon could also fail, plunging the region into further turmoil.

‘Cannot wait’ 

Conflict-wracked Somalia is particularly ill-equipped to cope with the crisis, with a grinding Islamist insurgency limiting humanitarian access to parts of the country.

Thousands of miles away, the war in Ukraine has also had a devastating impact on the lives of Somalis, with food prices soaring and aid in short supply.

Some 7.1 million Somalis — nearly half the population — are battling hunger, with more than 200,000 on the brink of starvation, the UN said this week.

Meanwhile appeals for aid have largely gone unnoticed, with agencies raising less than 20 percent of the funds needed to prevent a repeat of the 2011 famine that killed 260,000 people — half of them children under the age of six.

“We cannot wait for a declaration of famine to act,” Al Khidir Daloum, the World Food Programme’s country director in Somalia, said in a statement on Monday, warning of a race against time.

As humanitarian aid falls short, Somalia’s newly elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has urged Somalis to help their fellow citizens.

“Anyone with a plate of food in their table today must think about the child who is crying somewhere because of hunger and help them in any way possible,” he said during a recent visit to a camp housing drought-displaced communities.

Back at Banadir hospital, Khadija Mohamed Hassan anxiously keeps vigil over little Bilal, his bony body a mess of tubes and bandages.

“We have been here for 13 days, and he looks better now,” she said.

LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the fate of the whole Donbas region hinges on the "very fierce" battle with Russian troops for the flashpoint eastern city of Severodonetsk.

Moscow's forces are concentrating their firepower on the strategically important industrial hub as part of efforts to capture a swathe of eastern Ukraine.

As shelling and air strikes killed another 11 people around the country, Ukraine said on Thursday that the western long-range artillery it has been begging for would end the fight for Severodonetsk in days.

In his evening address to the nation on Wednesday, Zelensky said the battle for the city was "very fierce... very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war."

"In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there."

Following days of raging street battles, Ukrainian officials conceded that Russian troops control a large part of Severodonetsk and that their own forces might have to pull back due to constant shelling.

The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river, were the last areas still under Ukrainian control in Lugansk. Lysychansk is still in Ukrainian hands but under fierce Russian bombardment.

After being repelled from Kyiv following their February 24 invasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops have refocused their offensive on the Donbas region, comprising Lugansk and Donetsk.

'Very primitive' 

Part of the Donbas had already been held by pro-Russian separatists since 2014.

At the United Nations, Secretary General Antonio Guterres added his voice to increasingly dire warnings about the war's impact.

"For people around the world, the war is threatening to unleash an unprecedented wave of hunger and destitution, leaving social and economic chaos in its wake," he said.

Severodonetsk appeared close to being captured just days ago but outgunned Ukrainian forces launched counterattacks and managed to hold out.

Lugansk Regional Governor Sergiy Gaiday said Western artillery would help secure a Ukrainian victory, echoing Kyiv’s repeated calls for more military aid.

“As soon as we have long-range artillery to be able to conduct duels with Russian artillery, our special forces can clean up the city in two to three days,” he said.Gaiday added that Ukrainian forces in the city remained “highly motivated” and that “everyone is holding their positions”, while describing Russian tactics as “very primitive.”

The United States and Britain have announced they are providing Kyiv with long-range precision artillery batteries, defying warnings from Putin.

Global food crisis 

The Ukrainian presidency said four people were killed and five more wounded in a Russian air strike on Toshkivka, a village around 25 kilometres south of Severodonetsk.

Four more people were killed in fighting in Donetsk, and two were killed by shelling in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, it said. Another person was killed in the Mykolayiv region in the south.

Russia’s defence ministry meanwhile said it had targeted a Ukrainian training centre for “foreign mercenaries” in the Zhytomyr region.

Zhytomyr governor Vitaliy Bunechko confirmed a Russian strike overnight in the town of Novograd-Volynskyi but did not mention a training centre and said he had no information about victims.

The shockwaves from the Ukraine conflict continue to reverberate, especially from a looming global food crisis.

Russia and Turkey made little headway in striking a deal to secure safe passage for grain exports stuck in Ukraine.

At the request of the United Nations, Turkey has offered its services to escort maritime convoys from Ukrainian ports, despite the presence of mines.

“We are ready to do this in cooperation with our Turkish colleagues,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Ankara.

Lavrov’s Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu called Russian demands for an end to sanctions to help grain onto the world market “legitimate”.

‘Everyone has run away’ 

But Kyiv, which was not represented at the Ankara talks, blamed “Russian aggression, not sanctions” for high grain prices.

Before the war, Ukraine was a major exporter of wheat, corn and sunflower oil.

The situation on the ground in other parts of the Donbas is increasingly desperate.

In the city of Bakhmut, an unoccupied school building was reduced to a smouldering wreck after being shelled on Wednesday, with burnt books visible among the rubble, according to AFP journalists. No injuries or deaths were reported.

In Severodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk, residents who had chosen to stay were facing fierce Russian bombardments.

“Every day there are bombings and every day something burns. A house, a flat... And there is nobody to help me,” 70-year-old Yuriy Krasnikov told AFP.

“I tried to go to the city authorities, but nobody’s there, everyone has run away.”

There was some rare good news for Ukraine, as their football side clinched a 1-0 Nations League victory over the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday.

The victory, thanks to a free kick from Viktor Tsygankov, lifted the country’s spirits after their painful failure to qualify for the World Cup.

LONDON — Britain said on Thursday it was readying new legislation to rewrite its Brexit commitments on Northern Ireland but denied it was breaking its treaty obligations to the European Union.

The bill is expected next week, possibly on Monday, and would trigger unilateral changes to the so-called Northern Ireland Protocol in the teeth of objections from Brussels and most political parties in Belfast.

Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said opposition to Britain's tactics had "hardened" across EU capitals, querying whether it was "serious about a negotiated solution", Irish media reported.

The UK says the bill is needed to fix trade distortions in Northern Ireland, which was left hanging in a unique situation by Brexit, and bring the province's biggest pro-UK party back into power-sharing government.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Cabinet has signed off on the plan and only some final drafting remains, his spokesman told reporters.

"Yes, we are confident of that: The bill is lawful under international law," the spokesman added.

Senior minister Michael Gove denied that Johnson was looking to divert attention after he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote within his own party, by placating Brexit hardliners on the Conservative backbenches.

"I don't think it's about picking a fight," Gove said on BBC radio.

"It is absolutely right that we fix the problems with the Northern Ireland Protocol," he said.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) refusing to reenter government in the province unless the protocol is overhauled.

The protocol was agreed as part of Britain's Brexit divorce deal with Brussels, recognising Northern Ireland's status as a fragile, post-conflict territory that shares the UK's new land border with the EU.

It requires checks on goods arriving from England, Scotland and Wales, to prevent them entering the EU's single market via the Republic of Ireland.

That has infuriated the DUP, which says Northern Ireland's status within the UK is in jeopardy.

The UK says it plans to scrap most of the checks, arguing that the higher priority is ensuring no return to a hard border between the north and south of Ireland, in line with a 1998 peace agreement.

Overriding the protocol, the bill would let the UK create a "green channel" for British traders to send goods to Northern Ireland without making any customs declaration to the EU.

The EU would have access to more real-time UK data on the flow of goods, and only businesses intending to trade into the single market via Ireland would be required to make declarations.

Britain has vowed "robust penalties" for any companies seeking to abuse the new system, but would also remove oversight of the protocol by the European Court of Justice — another red line for Brussels.

Britain also risks antagonising the United States, which helped broker the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

But Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis has been briefing the US administration along with officials in Dublin and Brussels, to prepare the ground for the new bill, Johnson's spokesman said.

SHANGHAI — Shanghai will lock down a district of 2.7 million people on Saturday to conduct mass coronavirus testing, city authorities said, as the Chinese metropolis struggles to fully emerge from punishing curbs.

The city eased many restrictions last week, after confining most of its 25 million residents to their homes since March as China battled its worst COVID outbreak in two years.

But the lockdown was never fully lifted, with hundreds of thousands in China's biggest city still restricted to their homes and multiple residential compounds put under fresh stay-home orders.

The southwestern district of Minhang, home to 2.7 million people, will be placed under "closed management" on Saturday morning and all residents will be tested, district authorities said in a social media post on Thursday.

"The closure will be lifted after samples have been collected," they added, without giving a specific time or date.

The statement also did not say what measures would be imposed if any district residents test positive.

Under China's stringent zero-COVID approach, all positive cases are isolated and close contacts, often including the entire building or community where they live, are made to quarantine.

Shanghai reported nine new local infections on Thursday — none in Minhang.

Fears of another lockdown 

The district's announcement sparked fear among some social media users that the lockdown could be prolonged beyond Saturday if any cases are found.

"You need to clarify if [the lockdown] will really be lifted after samples are collected," one user wrote on Weibo.

"If there are abnormal results after the tests, what will you do? Continue the lockdown?" asked another.

The city government on Thursday denied rumours that the rest of the city would lock down again in phases, saying that while individual areas had issued confinement orders, the city as a whole was "gradually resuming normal production and life".

The lockdown in Shanghai, a major global shipping hub — had threatened to pile further pressure on already-strained international supply chains.

But the city has slowly come back to life in recent days.

Commuters are back on subways and buses as people return to working in their offices, while residents have gathered in parks and along the city's historic waterfront.

But others are chafing under continued restrictions, with residents in one compound in the downtown Xuhui district protesting against the rules this week.

Beijing, meanwhile, was transitioning more smoothly towards normality after shutting restaurants, gyms and subway stations last month to stamp out a smaller outbreak.

The Chinese capital's largest district, however, on Thursday ordered clubs and bars to close after some venues were linked to COVID cases, according to state media.

KYIV, Ukraine — The key eastern Ukraine city of Severodonetsk is now "largely" under Russian control after fierce fighting, while its twin city of Lysychansk is suffering enormous destruction, the region's governor said on Wednesday.

Moscow's forces "control a large part of Severodonetsk. The industrial zone is still ours, there are no Russians there. The fighting is only going on in the streets inside the city", Sergei Gaidai, governor of the Lugansk region, said on Telegram.

"The Russians are shooting at everything, they are destroying all the houses in Severodonetsk, with tanks, artillery. They are shooting at the industrial zone too, but the fighting is going on, our guys are resisting in the streets," he added.

The strategic city has become the focus of Russia's offensive as it seeks to seize an eastern swathe of Ukraine, after being repelled from the capital Kyiv and other parts of the country.

The cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which are separated by a river, were the last areas still under Ukrainian control in Lugansk.

Lysychansk remains fully under the control of the Ukrainian army but is under “powerful and chaotic” shelling, Gaidai said, accusing Russian forces of deliberately targeting hospitals and humanitarian aid distribution centres.

“The destruction is enormous.”

Earlier Wednesday, Gaidai admitted that Ukrainian forces “may have to withdraw” soon from Severodonetsk in view of the Russian onslaught, to better fortified positions.

The Russian army is trying to conquer the entire Donbas region, a mining basin in eastern Ukraine formed by the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

BRASÍLIA — The families of a British journalist and Brazilian indigenous expert who went missing deep in the Amazon after receiving threats made distraught pleas on Tuesday to authorities in Brazil to accelerate the search operation.

Veteran freelance journalist Dom Phillips, 57, and respected indigenous specialist Bruno Pereira, 41, went missing early Sunday while traveling by boat in the remote Javari Valley near Brazil's border with Peru, where Phillips was researching a book.

As the 48-hour mark passed, speculation swirled on where the men were and whether there could have been an accident or foul play.

"I want to make an appeal to the government to intensify the search," Phillips's Brazilian wife, Alessandra Sampaio, said in an emotional video message.

"We still have some small hope of finding them. Even if I don't find the love of my life alive, please find them," she said, choking back tears.

The Brazilian government expressed its "grave concern", and said police were taking "all possible measures to find [the men] as quickly as possible".

But the authorities faced accusations of failing to act urgently enough.

Despite the government's pledge to deploy the army, navy and federal police for the search, three indigenous rights groups in the region said in a joint statement that just six state police officers were actively working on the operation, and urged the government to deploy helicopters and a task force.

Bolsonaro response criticised 

President Jair Bolsonaro meanwhile drew criticism for appearing to blame the missing men, both of whom have extensive experience in the Amazon rainforest basin.

"Two people in a boat in a region like that, completely wild — it's an unadvisable adventure. Anything can happen," Bolsonaro said.

"Maybe there was an accident, maybe they were executed."

The far-right president has faced accusations of fueling invasions of indigenous lands in the Amazon with his pro-mining and pro-agribusiness policies.

Pereira, an expert currently on leave from Brazil's indigenous affairs agency, FUNAI, who knows the region well, has spent much of his career fighting such invasions.

He has regularly received threats from poachers, loggers and miners trying to invade isolated indigenous groups' land.

He and Phillips had received another threat just last week, according to indigenous rights groups.

The government said investigators were not ruling out "criminal activity" in the disappearance.

Officers brought two people in for questioning Monday, believed to be among the last to have been in contact with the missing men, police said in a statement.

Neither was detained, it said.

'Anguished' wait 

As two days passed since the two men's disappearance with no news, their families urged the authorities to act quickly.

"Time is a key factor in rescue operations, particularly if they are injured," Pereira's family said in a statement.

It said his partner, three children and other relatives were in "anguish".

Phillips's sister Sian posted a video message online, fighting back tears.

"We are really worried about him and urge the authorities in Brazil to do all they can," she said. "Every minute counts."

Phillips, who is based in the north-eastern city of Salvador, had previously accompanied Pereira in 2018 to the Javari Valley for a story in The Guardian.

The 85,000 square-kilometre reservation is home to around 6,300 indigenous people from 26 groups, including a large number with virtually no contact with the outside world.

FUNAI's base there, set up to protect indigenous inhabitants, has come under attack several times in recent years.

In 2019, a FUNAI officer there was shot dead.

The region has seen a surge of illegal logging, gold mining and poaching in recent years, and its remoteness makes it a haven for drug traffickers, said Fiona Watson, research director at indigenous rights group Survival International.

"You're talking about dense tropical forest," she told AFP.

"The operation to try and locate Bruno and Dom is immensely challenging."

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia on Tuesday reported its forces had taken full control of residential neighbourhoods in Ukraine's flashpoint city of Severodonetsk, after Kyiv said its troops were fighting on in the eastern hub despite being outnumbered.

"The residential areas of the city of Severodonetsk have been fully liberated," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a defence ministry meeting.

The Russian army was still seeking to establish control over the city's "industrial zone and the nearest settlements", he added, amid conflicting reports of who is in control of what.

Moscow has been pushing for control of the strategic industrial hub as part of its bid to conquer a vast swathe of eastern Ukraine but Kyiv's forces have so far managed to hold out,

"Our heroes are holding their positions in Severodonetsk. Fierce street fights continue in the city," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address late Monday.

Zelensky warned Ukrainian forces in the key city were outnumbered and the Russians "are stronger". He was speaking to journalists after visiting frontline positions in Lysychansk, across the river from Severodonetsk.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24.

After being repelled from other parts of the country, including Kyiv, Russia has concentrated its assault on the eastern Donbas region and had been making slow but steady progress.

Severodonetsk, the largest city still in Ukrainian hands in the Lugansk region of the Donbas, has been the focal point in recent weeks.

'General killed' 

The leader of Ukraine's pro-Russian separatists in Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, on Tuesday confirmed the death of another Russian general in the fighting.

Pushilin expressed on Telegram his "sincere condolences to the family and friends" of Major General Roman Kutuzov, "who showed by example how to serve the fatherland".

Ukraine’s forces have claimed to have killed several of Russia’s top brass but their exact number is not known as Moscow is tight-lipped on losses.

Defence Minister Shoigu said Russia had completed demining of the eastern port city of Mariupol, the second busiest in Ukraine before the conflict.

“It is operating as normal and has accepted the first cargo ships,” Shoigu said.

With fighting raging in the east of Ukraine, Kyiv hit out at the UN’s nuclear watchdog for trying to visit Europe’s largest nuclear reactor in the south of the country while it is under Russian occupation.

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Grossi, said on Monday his agency was preparing an expert mission to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

Grossi said on Twitter the visit was arranged after Ukraine had “requested” it.

But Ukraine’s nuclear agency, Energoatom on Tuesday accused Grossi of lying and said it did not greenlight the trip.

“The visit to the plant will only become possible when Ukraine takes back control of the site,” Energoatom wrote on Telegram.

“We consider this declaration a new attempt to gain access to the Zaporizhzhia power plant to legitimise the presence of the occupiers and approve their actions.”

Russian forces took control of the plant at the beginning of March and Moscow has threatened to cut Ukraine off from Zaporizhzhia unless Kyiv pays Moscow for the electricity produced.

Sexual violence concerns 

In 2021 the plant represented 20 per cent of Ukraine’s annual electricity production and nearly half of all nuclear power produced in Ukraine.

The Russian invasion, combined with supply chain snarls and climate change, has triggered stark warnings of global food shortages.

Moscow has blockaded the key black sea port of Odessa, and Zelensky said Ukraine had up to 25 million tonnes of grain that could not be exported.

“In the autumn that could be 70 to 75 million tonnes,” said the president, whose country was the world’s fourth biggest grain exporter before the war.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that reports Russia had stolen grain from Ukraine for export are “credible”.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council, the United States and Europe urged Russia to stop alleged sexual violence by its army and proxies in Ukraine, allegations that Moscow denounced as “lies”.

With the West seeking to tighten sanction screws on Russian oligarchs, the US Justice Department on Tuesday ordered the seizure of two aircraft owned by former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.

The US says the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner and Gulfstream G650ER executive jet were flown into Russian territory earlier this year in violation of US export controls.

And in Fiji, a court ruled a $300 million superyacht linked by the US to sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov could be handed over to US authorities.

The Amadea, which boasts a helipad, pool, jacuzzi and “winter garden”, was impounded in Fiji in April at Washington’s request.

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday survived a vote of no confidence from his own Conservative MPs but with his position weakened after a sizeable number refused to back him.

The Brexit figurehead called the 211-148 split a "convincing result, a decisive result".

"As a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that really matters," he told reporters.

The vote, just over two years after he won a landslide general election victory, was brought after a string of scandals that have left the Tory Party's standing in tatters.

Chief among them was the “Partygate” controversy over lockdown-breaking events at Downing Street, which caused public outrage and saw him become the first serving UK prime minister to have broken the law.

Johnson, 57, needed the backing of 180 MPs to survive the vote — a majority of one out of the 359 sitting Conservatives in parliament.

Defeat would have meant an end to his time as party leader and prime minister until a replacement was found in an internal leadership contest.

Speculation will now turn to whether Johnson can survive having lost the confidence of so many of his own MPs, and whether senior ministers will now resign.

In previous Tory ballots, predecessors Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May both ultimately resigned despite narrowly winning their own votes, deciding that their premierships were terminally damaged.

“The Conservative government now believes that breaking the law is no impediment to making the law,” the main opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said.

“The Conservative party now believes the British public have no right to expect honest politicians.”

‘Party’s over, Boris’ 

The vote dominated British newspaper front pages on Tuesday, with The Times describing Johnson as “A wounded victor” and pointing out that his margin of victory was less than that of his predecessor May, who was ousted months later.

Under the headline “Hollow victory tears Tories apart”, The Daily Telegraph said Johnson was “clinging to power” while The Financial Times said the margin of his victory “left him badly damaged and exposed the scale of the division and animosity in his party”.

“PM clinging to power after vote humiliation,” The Guardian said, while The Daily Mirror, which helped break the “Partygate” story, simply said “Party’s over, Boris”.

The Daily Mail was among the few supportive papers, saying “Boris vows: I’ll bash on”.

Johnson has steadfastly refused to resign over “Partygate”.

He earlier defended his record on delivering Brexit, fighting the COVID pandemic and Britain’s hawkish support for Ukraine against Russia.

“This is not the moment for a leisurely and entirely unforced domestic political drama and months and months of vacillation from the UK,” he told Tory MPs, according to a senior party source.

“We have been through bumpy times before and I can rebuild trust,” the prime minister told his parliamentary rank and file, according to the source, adding: “The best is yet to come.”

Supporters cheered and thumped their tables in approval.

The source said Johnson had indicated tax cuts could be in the offing as Britain contends with its worst inflation crisis in generations.

But the scale of Tory disunity was exposed in a blistering resignation letter from Johnson’s “anti-corruption champion” John Penrose and another letter of protest from long-time ally Jesse Norman.

The prime minister’s rebuttals over “Partygate” were “grotesque”, Norman wrote, warning that the Tories risked losing the next general election, which is due by 2024.

Ex-Cabinet member Jeremy Hunt, who lost to Johnson in the last leadership contest in 2019 and is expected to run again if Johnson is deposed, confirmed he would vote against him.

“Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve,” Hunt tweeted.

Jubilee booing 

After a dismal showing in May local elections, the party is expected to lose two by-elections this month, one of them in a previously rock-solid Conservative seat.

That is focusing the minds of Tory lawmakers, who fear their own seats could be at risk if Johnson leads them into the next election.

In a snap poll by Opinium Monday of 2,032 people, 59 per cent of respondents said the Tories should ditch him as leader.

Among Conservative members, 42 per cent want MPs to fire Johnson, according to another poll by YouGov.

Johnson was booed Friday by sections of an ardently patriotic crowd gathered outside St Paul’s Cathedral, ahead of a religious service for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.

For wavering Tories, the barracking at a televised national occasion reportedly marked a turning point. Some said they had held back on public criticism of Johnson until after the jubilee.

But Cabinet ally Jacob Rees-Mogg dismissed the booing as “muted noise” and insisted that Johnson could survive with the slenderest of majorities.