More Essex MPs have resigned as members of the Government in a letter calling for Boris Johnson to "step aside".

Boris Johnson has defied calls to resign despite a fresh wave of ministerial resignations, including two more Essex MPs.

Alex Burghart, Tory MP for Brentwood and Ongar, and Kemi Badenoch, MP for Saffron Walden, have both resigned as members of the Government in a letter to the Prime Minister.

Ms Badenoch was equalities and local government minister and Mr Burghart was a minister in the Department for Education. 

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Alex Burghart said alongside the letter on Twitter: "It is with great regret that I am today resigning as a minister in the Department for Education - I am very grateful to the Prime Minister for having given me the opportunity to serve."

The letter, which the Essex MPs signed alongside three others, praised Mr Johnson for his "fortitude, stamina and enduring optimism", adding that he had the "most difficult task in a generation".

However, the letter says it has become "increasingly clear that the Government cannot function given the issues that have come to light and the way in which they have been handled".

It adds: "In good faith we must ask that, for the good of the Party and the country, you step aside."

The Saffron Walden MP also said in her tweet: "With great regret, I resigned from the Government this morning.

"It has been an honour being Equalities and Local Government minister.

"It was a privilege to have worked with so many great ministerial colleagues and civil servants in these roles."

At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Johnson said the "colossal mandate" he had been handed by voters in 2019 means he should keep going despite the "difficult circumstances" he faces.

Tory Tim Loughton asked Mr Johnson in the Commons if there are "any circumstances" in which he should resign.

The Prime Minister replied: "Clearly if there were circumstances in which I felt it was impossible for the Government to go on and discharge the mandate that we have been given or if I felt, for instance, that we were being frustrated in our desire to support the Ukrainian people... then I would.

"But frankly the job of a Prime Minister in difficult circumstances when he has been handed a colossal mandate is to keep going, and that's what I'm going to do."