UK Politics

Boris Johnson’s anti-corruption tsar has resigned his position, claiming it is “pretty clear” the prime minister broke the ministerial code over the Partygate scandal.The Conservative MP John Penrose also insisted Mr Johnson should step down as prime minister – just hours before the party holds a vote of no confidence in his leadership.In a scathing letter to Mr Johnson, he accused the prime minister of breaching the code on the grounds that he had failed to provide adequate leadership over Partygate.Mr Penrose said: “The only fair conclusion to draw from the Sue Gray report is that you have breached a fundamental principle of the ministerial code – a clear resigning matter.“But your letter to your independent adviser on the ministerial code ignores this absolutely central, non-negotiable issue completely. And, if it had addressed it, it is hard to see how it could have reached any other conclusion than that you had broken the code.”He added: “As a result, I’m afraid it wouldn’t be honourable or right for me to remain as your anti-corruption champion after reaching this conclusion, nor for you to remain as prime minister either.“I hope you will stand aside so we can look to the future and choose your successor.”His remarks came as the senior Tory MP Jeremy Hunt said he would be voting for “change” after Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee, announced a confidence vote will be held.He said: “Having been trusted with power, Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve.“We are not offering the integrity, competence and vision necessary to unleash the enormous potential of our country.”Claiming the party was on course to lose the next election, he said: “Today’s decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change.”The former cabinet minister, who ran unsuccessfully against Mr Johnson for the leadership in 2019, also said the Conservative Party must now decide “if it wishes to change leader”. More

Boris Johnson says no-confidence vote win ‘decisive’ despite mass Tory rebellionBoris 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.Show latest update

1654568100Tory MPs demand cabinet cull after deeply wounded Boris Johnson scrapes through confidence voteBoris 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.Joe Middleton7 June 2022 03:151654565423Who could replace Boris Johnson? Latest oddsDespite 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.Joe Middleton7 June 2022 02:301654562723Boris Johnson is holed below the waterlineOur 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.Joe Middleton7 June 2022 01:451654560023Keir Starmer hits out at Tory MPs for supporting Johnson’s ‘law-breaking’ leadershipKeir Starmer hits out at Tory MPs for supporting Johnson’s ‘law-breaking’ leadershipJoe Middleton7 June 2022 01:001654557323ICYMI: Government aide quits as Scottish Tory MPs turn against Boris Johnson in confidence voteOne 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.Joe Middleton7 June 2022 00:151654554590Tory MPs demand cabinet cull after deeply wounded Boris Johnson scrapes through confidence voteBoris 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.Joe Middleton6 June 2022 23:291654553702Confidence vote result ‘worst of all worlds for the Tories’, claims SturgeonScotland’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.Joe Middleton6 June 2022 23:151654553421‘Major reshuffle’ coming and PM should promote Red Wall intake, says MPCamilla 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.”Joe Middleton6 June 2022 23:101654553040Tory MP says PM won ‘massive majority’ in confidence voteConservative 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.”Joe Middleton6 June 2022 23:041654552443Move over Mystic Meg, there is a new psychic in townEnergy 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.Joe Middleton6 June 2022 22:54 More

Former minister Jesse Norman has submitted a no-confidence letter in Boris Johnson, calling his response to the Partygate report “grotesque”.In a letter to the prime minister posted on social media, the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire said Mr Johnson had presided over “a culture of casual law-breaking” in Number 10.Mr Norman said the prime minister’s current policy priorities were “deeply questionable” and that there were no circumstances in which he could serve in a government led by him.He warned any breach of the Northern Irish Protocol would be “economically very damaging, politically foolhardy and almost certainly illegal”.“You are the leader of the Conservative and Unionist party, yet you are putting the Union itself gravely at risk,” he wrote.The MP also said the government’s Rwanda policy was “ugly, likely to be counterproductive and of doubtful legality” and that plans to privatise Channel 4 were “unnecessary and provocative”.His comments on Monday morning came shortly before Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, announced enough Tory MPs had requested a vote of confidence in Mr Johnson to trigger a contest.In an email to Tory MPs, Sir Graham said the vote would be held between 6pm and 8pm on Monday.To survive the vote – triggered amid intense anger over the Partygate scandal – the prime minister will need to win the support of 50 per cent of his colleagues in a secret ballot.Earlier, health secretary Sajid Javid told BBC Breakfast a no-confidence vote was likely but “not what the country needs” just moments earlier.“I hope there isn’t [a no-confidence vote] – you have to be prepared but I think that what the country wants is for the government to get on and focus on the job at hand, which we are,” he said.Mr Javid said his colleagues were “entitled to their views” but that his view was the country did not need a leadership election.“What we need is to all rally around the prime minister and focus on delivery and deliver for the British people,” he added.Downing Street said Mr Johnson “welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs”, with a No 10 spokeswoman saying Monday evening’s vote was “a chance to end months of speculation and allow the Government to draw a line and move on”. Additional reporting by Press Association More

Boris Johnson will face a no-confidence vote on Monday evening after Sir Graham Brady, chair of the influential 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, announced that he had received the necessary number of critical letters to trigger a ballot.Sir Graham said the vote – at which the prime minister will need to secure the support of 50 per cent of his own MPs to survive – would take place in the House of Commons between 6-8pm and that he had informed Mr Johnson of the development on Sunday night.”We agreed the timetable for the confidence vote to take place and he shared my view – which is also in line with the rules that we have in place – that that vote should happen as soon as could reasonably take place and that would be today,” Sir Graham told reporters outside Parliament.Asked precisely how many letters the committee had received and when the threshold of 54 had been passed, its chair declined to answer, explaining: “It is slightly complicated because some colleagues had asked specifically that it should not be until the end of the Jubilee celebrations.”Anger remains rife among Tory MPs over Downing Street rule-breaking during the coronavirus pandemic, a scandal that became known as “Partygate” and which has dogged Mr Johnson for six months, raising persistent questions about his leadership.The long-awaited publication of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report into the affair last month did nothing to quell the ill-feeling, leading to the extraordinary spectacle of the PM and his wife, Carrie Johnson, being booed by monarchists as they arrived at the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in central London on Friday for a ceremony to honour the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.While some disgruntled Conservatives have preferred to keep their letter-writing a secret, others have been vocal in demanding Mr Johnson’s resignation.Here is a full list of Tory MPs who have called for the PM to stand down.1. Sir Roger Gale, MP for North ThanetThe first Tory MP to declare no confidence in the prime minister last year, Sir Roger described the notorious Partygate pictures – which show the PM apparently toasting his then-communications chief Lee Cain with a plastic cup of sparkling wine in a room littered with alcohol bottles on 13 November 2020 – as “damning”.The MP for North Thanet submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM in December, but subsequently said it was not the right time for a leadership election, given Russia’s war in Ukraine.However, the veteran Conservative has since told Times Radio: “It’s absolutely clear that there was a party, that he attended it, that he was raising a toast to glass one of his colleagues. And therefore, he misled us from the despatch box. And, honourably, there is one answer.”2. Steve Baker, MP for WycombeFormer Conservative minister Steve Baker called for Mr Johnson to quit in April.“The prime minister now should be long gone,” the senior backbencher told the Commons. “Really, the prime minister should just know the gig’s up.’”Mr Baker, deputy leader of the Tories’ Covid Recovery Group, said he found he could not “forgive” the PM for “not obeying the letter and spirit” of the law.He declined to comment on the most recent photos, but tweeted a government poster issued during lockdown depicting a seriously ill Covid patient with the words: “Look her in the eyes and tell her you never bend the rules.”3. William Wragg, MP for Hazel GroveMr Wragg revealed he had submitted a no-confidence letter during a Commons debate on whether Mr Johnson should be referred to a parliamentary committee over Partygate.He said it was “utterly depressing to be asked to defend the indefensible… I cannot reconcile myself to the prime minister’s continued leadership.”4. Anthony Mangnall, MP for TotnesThe backbencher submitted a no-confidence letter earlier this year – saying Mr Johnson’s “actions and mistruths” were overshadowing the government’s work.Mr Mangnall told a constituent he stood by the resignation call following the PM’s police fine, according to Sky News.5. Mark Harper, MP for Forest of DeanThe former chief whip called for the PM to go in the Commons, as he also shared a letter of no-confidence he sent to the 1922 Committee. More

Boris Johnson will face a no-confidence vote on Monday evening after Sir Graham Brady, chair of the influential 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, announced that he had received the necessary number of critical letters to trigger a ballot.Sir Graham said the vote – at which the prime minister will need to secure the support of 50 per cent of his own MPs to survive – would take place in the House of Commons between 6-8pm and that he had informed Mr Johnson of the development on Sunday night.”We agreed the timetable for the confidence vote to take place and he shared my view – which is also in line with the rules that we have in place – that that vote should happen as soon as could reasonably take place and that would be today,” Sir Graham told reporters outside Parliament.Asked precisely how many letters the committee had received and when the threshold of 54 had been passed, its chair declined to answer, explaining: “It is slightly complicated because some colleagues had asked specifically that it should not be until the end of the Jubilee celebrations.”Anger remains rife among Tory MPs over Downing Street rule-breaking during the coronavirus pandemic, a scandal that became known as “Partygate” and which has dogged Mr Johnson for six months, raising persistent questions about his leadership.The long-awaited publication of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report into the affair last month did nothing to quell the ill-feeling, leading to the extraordinary spectacle of the PM and his wife, Carrie Johnson, being booed by monarchists as they arrived at the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral in central London on Friday for a ceremony to honour the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.While some disgruntled Conservatives have preferred to keep their letter-writing a secret, others have been vocal in demanding Mr Johnson’s resignation.Here is a full list of Tory MPs who have called for the PM to stand down.1. Sir Roger Gale, MP for North ThanetThe first Tory MP to declare no confidence in the prime minister last year, Sir Roger described the notorious Partygate pictures – which show the PM apparently toasting his then-communications chief Lee Cain with a plastic cup of sparkling wine in a room littered with alcohol bottles on 13 November 2020 – as “damning”.The MP for North Thanet submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM in December, but subsequently said it was not the right time for a leadership election, given Russia’s war in Ukraine.However, the veteran Conservative has since told Times Radio: “It’s absolutely clear that there was a party, that he attended it, that he was raising a toast to glass one of his colleagues. And therefore, he misled us from the despatch box. And, honourably, there is one answer.”2. Steve Baker, MP for WycombeFormer Conservative minister Steve Baker called for Mr Johnson to quit in April.“The prime minister now should be long gone,” the senior backbencher told the Commons. “Really, the prime minister should just know the gig’s up.’”Mr Baker, deputy leader of the Tories’ Covid Recovery Group, said he found he could not “forgive” the PM for “not obeying the letter and spirit” of the law.He declined to comment on the most recent photos, but tweeted a government poster issued during lockdown depicting a seriously ill Covid patient with the words: “Look her in the eyes and tell her you never bend the rules.”3. William Wragg, MP for Hazel GroveMr Wragg revealed he had submitted a no-confidence letter during a Commons debate on whether Mr Johnson should be referred to a parliamentary committee over Partygate.He said it was “utterly depressing to be asked to defend the indefensible… I cannot reconcile myself to the prime minister’s continued leadership.”4. Anthony Mangnall, MP for TotnesThe backbencher submitted a no-confidence letter earlier this year – saying Mr Johnson’s “actions and mistruths” were overshadowing the government’s work.Mr Mangnall told a constituent he stood by the resignation call following the PM’s police fine, according to Sky News.5. Mark Harper, MP for Forest of DeanThe former chief whip called for the PM to go in the Commons, as he also shared a letter of no-confidence he sent to the 1922 Committee. More

A confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s leadership marks the “beginning of the end” of his premiership, Sir Keir Starmer has claimed.Ahead of a secret ballot on Monday evening, the Labour leader also urged Tory MPs to vote against the prime minister in order to “get rid” of him.His remarks come just moments after the chair of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, announced rebels had reached the threshold for a vote of no confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership.In order to remain in No 10, the prime minister must now win the backing of at least 50 per cent of his colleagues in the ballot being held between 6-8pm in the corridors of the House of Commons.Speaking to LBC Radio, Sir Keir said Tory MPs have “got to show some leadership and vote against the prime minister”.“Looking at the national interest, I think Tory MP’s have got to step up, show leadership and get rid of him.“The public have made their mind up about this man, they don’t think he’s really telling the truth about many, many things, not just Partygate, but just a general sense that this man doesn’t really tell the truth and can’t be trusted”.Asked about the possibility of the prime minister surviving the vote, he replied: “History tells us this is the beginning of the end.“If you look at the previous examples of no confidence votes even when Conservative prime ministers survive those votes — he might survive it tonight — the damage is already done and usually they fall reasonably swiftly afterwards.”He added: “I don’t really mind who I fight [in a general election], but I do think it’s in the national interest that he should go.”However, a No 10 spokesperson said: “Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities.“The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force”.Theresa May’s former chief-of-staff, Gavin Barwell, who was by the side of the former prime minister when she survived a confidence vote in 2018, but resigned six months later, said Mr Johnson would be “wounded” by the vote.“The way to draw a line and move on is to change leader. If the PM wins tonight, he will be wounded and will still face the Privileges Committee investigation. Partygate isn’t going to go away”In an attempt to save his premiership, Mr Johnson will also address Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee ahead of Monday evening’s confidence vote in his leadership.The Labour leader also reiterated his pledge to resign his position if he is issued with a fixed penalty notice by Durham Police, but insisted there had been “no breach” of the Covid rules.“I will do the right thing and step down because it’s very important, I think, for everybody to hear and to know that not all politicians are there same,” he added.“I think the prime minister has made a big mistake by trying to cling on in relation to the law-breaking that we know went on in Downing Street”. More

Boris Johnson will face a no confidence vote after it was announced the Tory rebels reached the required threshold to hold a ballot, Sir Graham Brady has announced.To survive the vote — triggered amid intense anger over the Partygate scandal — the prime minister will now need to win the support of 50 per cent of his colleagues in a secret ballot.In an email to Tory MPs announcing the vote, the chair of the Conservatives’ 1922 commitee, Sir Graham, said the vote will be held between 6-8pm on Monday in the House of Commons.In a brief statement, he confirmed he had received the 54 letters from Tory MPs needed to trigger a vote, but did not specify the actual numbers of letters recieved.Sir Graham, who revealed some MPs had post-dated their no confidence letters until after the Queen’s Jubilee, communicated the news with the prime minister on Sunday evening and agreed the timetable for a vote.It raises the prospect of Mr Johnson being ousted from No 10 over the scandal that has rocked his premiership and under three years after winning the Tories’ biggest majority in decades in 2019.Just moments before the vote was announced, former minister Jesse Norman published a withering letter of no confidence, saying the prime minister had presided over a “culture of casual law-breaking”.He suggested Mr Johnson’s claim to be vindicated by the senior civil servant Sue Gray’s report was “grotesque” and said the party could not “squander” the next two years.But a No 10 spokesperson said: “Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities. More

Britain’s governing Conservatives will hold a no-confidence vote in Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday that could oust him as Britain’s leader.Party official Graham Brady says he has received enough letters from lawmakers demanding a vote on Johnson’s leadership to trigger one. That happens if 54 Tory lawmakers — 15% of the party’s group in the House of Commons — write to Brady.“The threshold of 15% has been passed,” Brady said. He said the vote would take place in person in the House of Commons on Monday evening.If Johnson loses the vote among the 359 Conservative lawmakers, he will be replaced as Conservative leader and prime minister. If he wins, he can’t face another challenge for a year.Johnson has been struggling to turn a page on months of ethics scandals, most notably over rule-breaking parties in government buildings during COVID-19 lockdowns. Late last month an investigator’s report on what has become known as “partygate” slammed a culture of rule-breaking inside the prime minister’s No. 10 Downing St. office. Civil service investigator Sue Gray described alcohol-fueled bashes held by Downing Street staff members in 2020 and 2021, when pandemic restrictions prevented U.K. residents from socializing or even visiting dying relatives. Gray said the “senior leadership team” must bear responsibility for “failures of leadership and judgment.”The prime minister said he was “humbled” and took “full responsibility” — but insisted it was now time to “move on” and focus on Britain’s battered economy and the war in Ukraine.But a growing number of Conservatives feel that Johnson, the charismatic leader who won them a huge parliamentary majority in 2019, is now a liability.If Johnson is ousted it would spark a Conservative leadership contest, in which several prominent government ministers are likely to run.Conservative lawmaker Roger Gale, a Johnson critic, said “we have some very good alternatives to the prime minister so we’re not short of choice.“Any single one of those people in my view would make a better prime minister than the one that we’ve got at the moment,” he told the BBC.Discontent seems to have come to a head over a parliamentary break that coincided with celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. For many, the four-day long weekend was a chance to relax — but there was no respite for Johnson, who was booed by some onlookers as he arrived for a service in the queen’s honor at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday.Cabinet minister Steve Barclay, a Johnson ally, said toppling the leader now would be “indefensible.”“The problems we face aren’t easy to solve,” he wrote on the Conservative Home website. “Democracies around the world are all currently facing similar challenges. But under Boris Johnson’s leadership, our plan for jobs shows how we are navigating through these global challenges.“To disrupt that progress now would be inexcusable to many who lent their vote to us for the first time at the last general election, and who want to see our Prime Minister deliver the changes promised for their communities.” More