Boris Johnson says no-confidence vote win ‘decisive’ despite mass Tory rebellion
Boris Johnson has hailed the “decisive” result of a vote of no-confidence into his leadership and said the government can now “move on” – despite a mass Tory rebellion against him.
Shortly after the ballot – which Mr Johnson won by a margin of 211 to 148 – the prime minister told broadcasters he had a “far bigger mandate” than he did when voted in as leader in 2019, adding he was “happy with that”.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said the British public was “fed up” with a prime minister that promised big and failed to deliver and who had “presided over a culture of lies and law breaking in parliament”.
Despite the victory on Monday night, Mr Johnson faces an uncertain political future. A steady stream of Tory MPs have called publicly for him to stand down in the wake of Sue Gray’s report into breaches of the Covid-19 regulations in No 10 and Whitehall.
And Tory concerns go far wider, covering his policies, which have seen the tax burden reach the highest in 70 years, and concerns about his leadership style.
Tory MPs demand cabinet cull after deeply wounded Boris Johnson scrapes through confidence vote
Boris Johnson is facing demands for a wholesale cull of his cabinet after scraping through a vote of no confidence in his leadership by 211 votes to 148.
The PM’s victory in the ballot of Tory MPs spared him the humiliation of ejection from 10 Downing Street by his own party, but left him deeply wounded as he faces two by-elections later this month and a general election less than two years away.
The tally of 41.2 per cent of Tory MPs opposing the leader was far worse than expected by Mr Johnson’s allies and significantly higher than the 36.9 per cent voting no confidence in Theresa May six months before she was forced from office.
Who could replace Boris Johnson? Latest odds
Despite winning Monday’s no-confidence vote, Boris Johnson is facing speculation over his long-term future after 148 Tory MPs voted against him.
Even before the no-confidence vote, he was odds-on at 4/9 to leave No 10 according to Betfair.
The list of runners and riders to replace Mr Johnson has lengthened in recent months, but there are several contenders should he eventually be forced out of Downing Street.
Matt Mathers reports.
Boris Johnson is holed below the waterline
Our chief political commentator John Rentoul writes: Worse than Theresa May. That is not a comparison Boris Johnson wanted made, but his confidence vote was worse than hers, which she also “won”, in 2018. Johnson has lost the majority of his backbenchers and more than 40 per cent of the whole parliamentary party. For all the bravado beforehand about a one vote being enough, he knew he had to win by an emphatic margin, and he knows now that this is not it.
Winning by 211 votes to 148 is in the middle of the grey zone of neither winning decisively nor losing. This is the result that Keir Starmer wanted: keeping Johnson afloat, but holed below the waterline and sinking slowly. Who knows how much more damage the prime minister can inflict on the Tory party’s reputation before he goes?
Never mind all the mythology about the Conservative Party’s ruthlessness. It is not easy to be ruthless when you cannot be sure what your fellow conspirators are doing. A secret letter-writing campaign to trigger a secret ballot is a difficult system to organise, for or against the leader. If MPs had known what the result was going to be, they might have voted differently. Then, they might have been ruthless and decided to get rid of the prime minister straight away.
Keir Starmer hits out at Tory MPs for supporting Johnson’s ‘law-breaking’ leadership
ICYMI: Government aide quits as Scottish Tory MPs turn against Boris Johnson in confidence vote
One of the few Scots in Boris Johnson’s government quit his post to join the majority of Conservative MPs from north of the border who voted against the prime minister in Monday’s confidence vote.
John Lamont stood down as parliamentary private secretary in the Foreign Office, saying that he had received thousands of messages from constituents who were “rightly deeply angered” by lockdown-breaching parties in Downing Street.
At least four of the six Scottish Conservatives in the House of Commons voted to remove Mr Johnson, including Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross and former Scotland secretary David Mundell.
Andrew Woodcock reports.
Tory MPs demand cabinet cull after deeply wounded Boris Johnson scrapes through confidence vote
Boris Johnson is facing demands for a wholesale cull of his cabinet after scraping through a vote of no confidence in his leadership by 211 votes to 148.
The PM’s victory in the ballot of Tory MPs spared him the humiliation of ejection from 10 Downing Street by his own party, but left him deeply wounded as he faces two by-elections later this month and a general election less than two years away.
The tally of 41.2 per cent of Tory MPs opposing the leader was far worse than expected by Mr Johnson’s allies and significantly higher than the 36.9 per cent voting no confidence in Theresa May six months before she was forced from office.
Kate Devlin, Andrew Woodcock, Rob Merrick and Anna Isaac have the details.
Confidence vote result ‘worst of all worlds for the Tories’, claims Sturgeon
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said the confidence vote result of Boris Johnson’s leadership is the “worst of all worlds for the Tories.
She added that it “saddles the UK with an utterly lame duck PM” and added that for Scotland “it just underlines the democratic deficit” with just 2 of 59 MPs having confidence in Mr Johnson.
‘Major reshuffle’ coming and PM should promote Red Wall intake, says MP
Camilla Turner, chief political correspondent at The Daily Telegraph, is reporting that an MP thinks Boris Johnson will embark on a big reshuffle.
The MP said: “The PM needs to get some people from the Red Wall into Number 10. He’s got time to turn it around. He’s got four or five more years now.”
Tory MP says PM won ‘massive majority’ in confidence vote
Conservative MP Peter Bone says Boris Johnson won a “massive majority” in the confidence vote on Monday evening.
The Tory MP for Wellingborough told the PA: “I was very pleased with the vote today, I supported the Prime Minister, we had to deal with this issue.
“The last time there was an election by MPs in the House of Commons on the leadership Boris Johnson only got 51 per cent of Conservative MPs voting for him, he got 60 per cent so he has improved his position relating to MPs.
“Obviously, two thirds of the party members voted for him in the subsequent poll and then of course he won a big general election victory so the only people that should be removing the Prime Minister of the Conservative Party is the electorate, and in two years time they will have that chance.
“I hope what we have done we will prove to the British public that we deserve another term.
“But it is not for a few dissident backbench MPs to try and get rid of the Prime Minister, it is up to the British public and that is what the vote tonight, I mean, what was it? 211 to 148? Massive majority for the Prime Minister.”
Move over Mystic Meg, there is a new psychic in town
Energy minister Greg Hands shared picture of a Wesminster bus stop that displayed the exact result of the vote of no-confidence won by Boris Johnson on Monday night.
In the lighhearted Twitter post, Mr Hands praised the predictive abilities of the Westminster bus stop. He said: “The Parliament Square bus stop had the result long before anyone else did”.
Mr Johnson won by a margin of 211 to 148.
