Boris Johnson 'not interested in snap elections' after winning confidence vote
Graham Brady announces that Boris Johnson has survived an attempt by Tory MPs to oust him as party leader following a confidence vote in his leadership. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Boris Johnson has survived an attempt by Tory MPs to oust him in a vote of confidence.
Tory MPs voted by 211 to 148 in the secret ballot in Westminster, Conservative 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady announced.
Announcing the results, Mr Brady said: “I can report as returning officer that 359 ballots were cast, no spoilt ballots, that the vote in favour of having confidence in Boris Johnson as leader was 211 votes and a vote against was 148 votes.
The result means that Mr Johnson saw 41% of his MPs vote against him.
When former British prime minister Theresa May faced a confidence vote in 2018 she secured the support of 63% of her MPs – but was still forced out within six months.
The ballot was triggered after at least 54 MPs – 15% of the party’s representatives in the Commons – said they had no confidence in the prime minister.
Following the vote Mr Johnson said he is “certainly not interested in snap elections” describing the outcome as a “very good result”. He told broadcasters: “I think this is a very good result for politics and for the country.”
He added it was “a convincing result, a decisive result, and what it means is that as a Government we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people”.
Asked how it compared to past confidence votes in Conservative prime ministers, he added: “I have got a far bigger mandate from my own parliamentary colleagues than I had in 2019.”
Labour leader Keir Starmer said Mr Johnson was “utterly unfit for the great office he holds” and accused Tory MPs of ignoring the British public.
He said: “The Conservative Government now believes that breaking the law is no impediment to making the law.”
He tweeted to say a “divided” Conservative Party is “propping up” Boris Johnson after the Prime Minister survived the confidence vote.
“The choice is clearer than ever before: Divided Tories propping up Boris Johnson with no plan to tackle the issues you are facing,” he tweeted.
Earlier, Mr Johnson had pleaded with Tory MPs to back his leadership rather than indulge in “pointless” internal warfare ahead of the crunch vote.
Mr Johnson wrote to Tory MPs and addressed them at a private meeting in Westminster two hours before voting began.
He reminded Conservatives that “under my leadership” the party had won its biggest electoral victory in 40 years and made a commitment to future tax cuts, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak expected to say more in the coming weeks.
He warned them that Tory splits risked the “utter disaster” of Keir Starmer’s Labour entering Downing Street, propped up by the SNP.
“The only way we will let that happen is if we were so foolish as to descend into some pointless fratricidal debate about the future of our party,” he said, according to briefed extracts of his speech to the private meeting of Tory MPs.
He told MPs “I understand the anxieties of people who have triggered this vote” but “I humbly submit to you that this is not the moment for a leisurely and entirely unforced domestic political drama and months and months of vacillation from the UK.”
In an attempt to win round Tories concerned about his economic plans, Mr Johnson said: “Everyone understands the fiscal impact of Covid, the cost of clearing the backlogs, but the way out now is to drive supply side reform on Conservative principles and to cut taxes.”
In his separate letter to Conservatives, Mr Johnson said: “Tonight we have the chance to end weeks of media speculation and take this country forward, immediately, as one united party.”
It is an opportunity to “draw a line” under the issue, he added.
“I do not believe our voters will lightly forgive us if – just when they need us most to be focusing on them – we appear once again to be focusing on Westminster politics.”
Emerging from the Tory meeting, Foreign Office committee James Cleverly said Mr Johnson’s address had been “light on jokes”, with Mr Johnson in “serious mode”.
He said he expected Mr Johnson to win: “No-one can absolutely tell for certain, but the tone, the mood of that room gives me a feeling that actually the vast bulk of the parliamentary party wants us to move on from this row, wants us to focus on what we should be focusing on which is serving the people who elect us and also the position that we play in the world at an incredibly turbulent time.”
The alternative was a “protracted period of introspection”, he warned.
Mr Johnson was informed early on Sunday afternoon that he would face the vote after more than 15% of the party’s MPs – 54 parliamentarians – had submitted formal letters, emails or messages saying they had lost confidence in him.
Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, confirmed he had received the 54 letters from Conservative MPs needed to trigger the vote on Sunday with a “clear indication” that there would be more to come following the conclusion of the Platinum Jubilee festivities.
A steady stream of Tory MPs called publicly for Mr Johnson to stand down in the wake of Sue Gray’s report into breaches of the Covid regulations in No 10 and Whitehall.
But Tory concerns go far wider, covering Mr Johnson's policies which have seen the tax burden reach the highest in 70 years and concerns about his approach to ethics and cultural issues.
In order to oust Mr Johnson, however, the rebels will need 180 MPs, and allies of Mr Johnson made clear he is determined to fight to stay on.
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