Oliver Dowden dramatically quit in the wake of the party's double by-election pummelling

It comes after the controversy over the Rwanda migration plan - which saw its first planned flight grounded after legal interventions which embarrassed Ms Patel's flagship plan.Ī Cabinet source told the Telegraph that a reshuffle was risky for Boris Johnson because senior figures might refuse to move and quit the Government. Some even described the calls as a 'backhanded compliment'. The move would remove her from one of the so-called 'Great Offices of States' and into an altogether less public role. However, her friends insisted that the move is unlikely to happen and has been wrongly mooted before reshuffles in the past. Ms Patel is one of the Cabinet's least popular ministers among Tory grassroots supporters, and her flagship Rwanda migrant policy has so far failed to get off the ground. Priti Patel is being touted to replace Oliver Dowden as Tory party chairman amid the fallout from Thursday's double by-election catastrophe.Īllies of Boris Johnson say the Prime Minister is considering moving the Home Secretary to the party chairman post, in what is likely to be regarded as a sideways move or even demotion.