Four senior aides to Boris Johnson have resigned from Downing Street within hours of each other amid growing pressure on the prime minister.

Director of communications Jack Doyle confirmed his exit shortly after the departure of policy head Munira Mirza.

They were followed on Thursday by chief of staff Dan Rosenfield and senior civil servant Martin Reynolds.

The top aides’ resignations came as Mr Johnson faces increasing questions over his leadership from within his party.

Mr Doyle told staff that “recent weeks have taken a terrible toll on my family life”, but that he had always intended to leave after two years.

A statement from a No 10 spokeswoman said Mr Rosenfield had offered his resignation to the prime minister earlier on Thursday, but would stay on while his successor was found. And Mr Reynolds – the prime minister’s principal private secretary – will do the same, but then return to a role at the Foreign Office.

A number of MPs supportive of the prime minister have been tweeting praise, suggesting Mr Johnson was responsible for making necessary staff changes following a damning report by civil servant Sue Gray into rule-breaking parties in No 10 during the pandemic.

However, Ms Mirza quit over the PM’s false claim that Sir Keir Starmer failed to prosecute Jimmy Savile when he was director of public prosecutions, and his refusal to apologise.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak publicly distanced himself from the PM’s original comment, saying: “Being honest, I wouldn’t have said it.”

And asked if Mr Johnson should apologise, he said: “That’s for the prime minister to decide.”

Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “With [Mr Johnson’s] senior advisers and aides quitting, perhaps it is finally time for him to look in the mirror and consider if he might just be the problem.”

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