Boris Johnson will today (June 6) face a no-confidence vote in his leadership of the Conservative Party, after the threshold for the vote was exceeded.
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Enough MPs have now written to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, to trigger the vote. It will take place between 6pm and 8pm in the House of Commons and the result is expected approximately one hour afterwards.
At least 54 MPs (15 per cent of Tory MPs) have called to challenge the Prime Minister. In order for Johnson to be ousted, half of all Conservative MPs plus one would need to vote against him, which results in 180 MPs overall.
If Johnson wins the vote then he will remain as party leader and Prime Minister and be immune from another such challenge for a year. However if he loses, a leadership contest will run to choose a new leader and Johnson will be barred from standing.
A Downing Street spokesman 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.”
Ahead of tonight’s vote, Tory whips will meet with the Prime Minister and try to rally MPs to support him.
The motion of no confidence follows Sue Gray’s damning final report into the COVID lockdown breaking parties – the so-called Partygate scandal – for which Johnson received a fixed penalty notice in April. He became the first sitting British Prime Minister to have been found to have broken the law.
But Johnson has been marred by criticism of his leadership more generally, as reflected most recently by the reception he and his wife, Carrie, received over the Platinum Jubilee weekend. The pair were greeted with a mixture of cheers and – largely – jeers as they entered St Paul’s cathedral for Queen Elizabeth II’s thanksgiving service.
According to a report by The Telegraph, Tory rebels were circulating a memo over the weekend that allegedly stated: “The booing of Boris Johnson at the Jubilee Thanksgiving service tells us nothing that data does not. There is no social group that trusts him, with even 55 per cent of current Conservatives calling him untrustworthy, against only 25 per cent saying he is trustworthy.”
It was said that Johnson was “no longer an electoral asset”, predicting that “if left in post [he] will lead the Party to a substantial defeat in 2024. He will lose Red Wall seats (with majorities under 10,000) to Labour, and Blue Wall seats (majorities up to 20,000) to the Liberal Democrats”.
Despite the motion of no confidence, many MPs loyal to Johnson have rallied round including the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak. He said that the Prime Minister has “shown the strong leadership our country needs”. Sunak was also fined in April.
The Prime Minister has my 100% backing in today's vote and I strongly encourage colleagues to support him.
He has delivered on covid recovery and supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. He has apologised for mistakes made.
We must now focus on economic growth.
— Liz Truss (@trussliz) June 6, 2022
Foreign Office minister James Cleverly said he’s “not going to go flaky on him now”, while Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Johnson has my “100 per cent backing”.
Johnson is also set to be investigated by a Commons committee over claims that he misled Parliament about parties in Downing Street during lockdown. Under government guidelines, ministers who knowingly mislead the House of Commons are expected to resign.
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