For the last four days, the chaos of British politics was put on pause.
The Queen’s jubilee – a celebration of the 70 years of the monarch’s reign – meant many in Britain were focused on the celebrations, where images of street parties, balcony appearances and colorful parades down the Mall engulfed national papers and TV programming.
Boris Johnson, whose premiership has been engulfed in scandal for months after it emerged he attended illegal parties during lockdown – and who subsequently, became the first sitting UK Prime Minister to be found guilty of breaking the law – was able to appear at legitimate gatherings outside Buckingham Palace on Saturday and Sunday, enjoying a brief respite from the constant speculation about his job security (although he was booed as he arrived to a religious service at St Paul’s Cathedral with his wife, Carrie on Friday.)
However that calm was shattered at 8 a.m. on Monday morning, when a long-expected confidence vote in Boris Johnson was announced.
Johnson was always expected to survive the vote. Three of his predecessors as Conservative Prime Minister have faced leadership challenges during their stint – only Margaret Thatcher succumbed.
The final result, though, is about as bad as any of the Prime Minister’s allies could have expected. A staggering 41% of Johnson’s lawmakers put on record that they have no confidence in their leader; an astonishing outcome less than three years after he claimed a landslide general election victory.
So, what now?
Johnson will wake up on Tuesday in charge of a deeply divided party, with his authority and reputation even further bruised.
He will limp on towards yet another crucial date – June 23 – when two by-elections take place. The Conservatives are tipped to lose both seats and a double defeat will renew clamor among rebelling lawmakers for a change of leadership.
While the party’s rules say Johnson is safe from a confidence vote for another year, those rules can be changed if there’s appetite to do so.
Any new bill he wishes to put before Parliament will likely need to approval of dozens of his rebels to pass. If the MPs who voted against him on Monday decide to do so, they can essentially put a stranglehold on his government.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party, which has led Johnson in opinion polls throughout 2022, will gleefully remind the public at any given opportunity that many of Johnson’s own colleagues don’t back him.
It’s a remarkable contrast to December 2019, when after a thumping electoral success, some observers were predicting the new decade would bring a fresh Tory dynasty, built in Johnson’s image.
Instead, Johnson is a prime minister in survival mode. And even though he’s said Monday’s outcome is “good news,” he will need a drastic turnaround to convince many in his own party – and the British public that he’s still a winner.
Boris Johnson has attempted to spin his narrow confidence vote victory as a positive, describing the outcome as “good news.”
“I think it’s an extremely good, positive, conclusive, decisive result which enables us to move on to unite,” Johnson said in an interview shortly after the vote.
An astonishing 148 of Johnson’s own lawmakers turned against him on Monday night. 211 voted in support of him.
“What it means is that as a government, we can move on and focus on the stuff that really matters to people,” Johnson said.
He added that the result gives his government “an opportunity to put behind us all the stuff that people in the media like going on about.”
Johnson said he was “not interested” in calling a snap general election – although he declined the chance to definitively rule one out.
He will however, have to contend with the fact that a significant portion of his own party wants him out – a situation that has claimed the careers of some of his predecessors.
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said “divided Tories” have propped up Boris Johnson’s government and that Conservative MPs “have ignored the British public.”
In a tweet, Starmer said Johnson has “no plan to tackle the issues you are facing.”
In a statement shortly after Johnson narrowly survived his confidence vote, Starmer said: “The Conservative party now believes that good government, focused on improving lives, is too much to ask.”
Johnson losing the support of more than 40% of his own party has gifted Labour a talking point that they will be eager to remind the electorate.
“Boris Johnson is now walking wounded,” Labour’s shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the BBC after the vote.
After febrile speculation about the number of Conservative MPs who would vote against Johnson, the final figure who rebelled against him was higher than many expected.
A staggering 148 of his own lawmakers decided they had no confidence in Johnson’s leadership, against 211 who support him.
That means 58.6% of Conservative MPs backed him – a worse result than former Prime Minister Theresa May, who had the support of 63% of her lawmakers (200, in a much smaller parliamentary party) when she faced a confidence vote in 2018.
May survived just six months further in the job, before ultimately being forced to resign.
Boris Johnson will survive in his role as Britain’s Prime Minister, but his authority has imploded after narrowly fighting off a confidence vote in his leadership.
211 MPs supported Johnson in the vote, against 148 who voted against him.
He will likely seek to frame the result as a chance to move on, but the slim margin of victory means his job security remains in peril.
Boris Johnson has won his confidence vote, with a majority of Conservative MPs deciding to stick with the Prime Minister.
Boris Johnson can continue as Conservative leader and Britain’s Prime Minister if he wins tonight’s vote. But the margin of victory is crucial: If a significant amount of his own party’s lawmakers oppose him, his authority will be shattered.
If he loses the vote, party rules require him to step down.
A leadership election will then get underway, and as the Conservatives are the UK’s ruling party, the winner of that election will also become Prime Minister.
Here’s a reminder of the ins and outs of that process:
The two-hour voting window for Conservative MPs has closed.
Boris Johnson now faces a nervous wait for ballots to be counted; we’ll find out at 9 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET) whether he’s survived his confidence vote.
Voting has been underway for an hour and Conservative MPs appear to be in a strange mood.
No one, friend or foe, thinks tonight will end well. MPs awaiting the results are drinking on the House of Commons terrace, a spot that overlooks the river Thames and London Eye.
A handful of opposition MPs are also here to observe the spectacle.
Johnson’s allies believe he will win, but with a margin that is far from convincing and will not allow them to move on from the Partygate scandal.
Johnson-skeptics, meanwhile, are resigned to the idea that the Prime Minister will win and ultimately do more harm to the party.
They are annoyed that the vote is happening today rather than further down the line when potential replacements could be better prepared and the case for removing him more compelling, such as after the end of the month’s by-elections.
The margin of victory numerous MPs have said they are looking at is 80. Anything less than that and Johnson’s overall parliamentary majority is in peril.
Regardless, all sides seem to accept that things are bad and that turning around the fortunes of the Conservative Party will take more than Johnson surviving a vote among his own MPs.
Which, in the long run, means Johnson still has much to fix if he’s to save his premiership.
The Conservative Party’s confidence vote in their leader Boris Johnson is underway.
Tory MPs have two hours to cast their votes in Parliament, and the result will be announced an hour after that, at 9 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET).
Six out of ten British adults say that Conservative Members of Parliament should vote to remove Prime Minister Boris Johnson from office, according to a new snap poll conducted on Monday.
The British market research agency Opinium surveyed 2,062 British adults ahead of Monday evening’s confidence vote.
The poll found that 28% of voters think Conservative MPs should vote to keep Johnson, while 59% think they should vote to remove him.
It also found that 58% of voters think that Boris Johnson’s leadership has been bad for the country, compared to 37% who think it has been good.
However, a majority of Conservative voters said Conservative MPs should vote to keep the prime minister, with only 34% of Conservative voters wanting him to go, according to Opinium.
The margin of error for the poll is plus or minus 2.16 points.
The Opinium poll regarding the confidence vote is consistent with previous polls that found a majority of Britons said the prime minister should resign over the “Partygate” scandal.
According to a May 25 snap poll from Savanta ComRes, 65% of Britons said Boris Johnson should resign over the findings of the Sue Gray report into llegal parties held in and around Downing Street during official Covid-19 lockdowns.
Boris Johnson is facing a vote of confidence in his leadership today after more than 54 lawmakers in his own party submitted letters against him.
It comes after months of turmoil over illegal parties held in and around Downing Street during official Covid-19 lockdowns.
Johnson had the opportunity to address Conservative Party MPs in private at 4 p.m. local time (11 a.m. ET), before the lawmakers vote on his future by secret ballot between 6 p.m. local time (1 p.m. ET) and 8 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET) at Westminster.
Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench lawmakers, will then announce the result around an hour later at 9 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET).
If 180 Conservative lawmakers – a simple majority – vote against Johnson, he will cease to be leader of the party and will be forced from office, less than three years after winning a general election in a landslide. Under Conservative Party rules, Johnson would not be allowed to run in the leadership contest following his ouster.
If Johnson wins the vote, he will remain both as leader of the ruling party and as Prime Minister.
A comfortable win could mean Johnson arguably emerges stronger within his party. Under current party rules – which can be changed at any time – he’d be immune from another leadership challenge for 12 months.
A narrow win, by contrast, would leave Johnson’s reputation diminished even if it does not topple his government. Disappointing results in this month’s by-elections could heap more pressure on Johnson ahead of a national general election expected in 2024.
With the fate of his premiership in the hands of his Conservative friends and foes, Boris Johnson has begged Tory MPs to support him in Monday evening’s confidence vote.
In a letter to his party members ahead of the vote, as reported by PA Media, he asked for the “golden chance to put this behind us” and to move forward as “one united party,” reflecting on the ruling party’s journey through Brexit, the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war.
Johnson also outlined the plans he intends to fulfil if he remains in office.
Here is the text of his letter in full:
Tonight we have the chance to end weeks of media speculation and take this country forward, immediately, as one united party.
Tonight is the moment to draw a line under the issues our opponents want us to talk about — and to focus instead on what really matters: the needs of the voters who sent us to Westminster.
I am asking you for your support tonight because I know how much we can achieve together.
Together, we won the biggest mandate for the Conservative Party in 40 years. As we promised, we resolved the long Brexit crisis and created a new and friendly relationship with the European Union.
When the UK was hit by the worst global pandemic for a century, we showed the drive and grip to deliver the first approved vaccine anywhere in the world followed by the fastest vaccine roll-out in Europe.
It was because we took tough but responsible decisions during the pandemic that we were able to reopen our economy speedily — with the result that we now have the lowest unemployment since 1974.
And we took the tough decision to become the first European country to help the Ukrainians to protect themselves against Russian aggression; and I am proud of the leadership the UK has shown.
From tackling social care to striking an economic and migration partnership with Rwanda, we have shown time and again that we can be trusted to deliver bold and innovative solutions to difficult and longstanding problems.
I say all this not because I want to take satisfaction in past achievements, but because now is the time to concentrate every ounce of that same energy and drive on the priorities of the British people.
As the whole world struggles with the economic impact of (Vladimir) Putin’s aggression, we have already taken decisive action — just as we took decisive action during Covid — to shield the public from the energy price spike.
We are helping eight million of the most vulnerable households with £1,200 of support, amid many other measures.
We can do this because we have the fiscal firepower to help, because of the tough — and contested — decisions we took during Covid. We are finding the cash because we are compassionate Conservatives, and because it is the right thing to do.
But we also know that you cannot just spend your way out of inflation, and you cannot tax your way into growth.
Over the next few weeks Rishi (Sunak) and I will be setting out all the ways in which we will be using Conservative principles to take advantage of our new freedoms, cut costs, and drive growth.
We will cut the costs of government. We will cut the costs of business. And we will cut the costs of families up and down the country.
From Transport to Childcare to Energy to Housing — we will drive reform and find ways of reducing each major item of household expenditure.
And we will of course devote all our energy to reducing the biggest single household outgoing of all — the tax bill. It must come down, and it will, because that is the best way to deliver the growth we need.
By throwing ourselves into this project we will deliver above all on what we were elected to do in 2019 — uniting and levelling up, with high wage high skill jobs across the whole country.
That means whoever you are, wherever you live, whatever your background, we will give you the opportunity to make the most of your talents.
By levelling up, by unleashing the potential of every corner of the United Kingdom with our continuing investments in infrastructure, skills and technology, we want to make the UK the most prosperous economy in Europe.
That is our vision: of a strong and prosperous United Kingdom, with our beloved Union protected and supported, projecting the best of British values around the world.
We can do it, but it will need all our collective resolve to help our country through what will be difficult months ahead.
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. I am afraid the only beneficiaries will be our opponents.
I know that over recent months I have come under a great deal of fire, and I know that experience has been painful for the whole party.
Some of that criticism has perhaps been fair, some less so. Where there have been valid points, I have listened and learned and made significant changes.
And I will of course continue to listen and learn from colleagues about the improvements you wish to see.
But I cannot stress too much that we have a golden chance to put this behind us now.
With your support, I believe that tonight we have a great prize within our grasp. We can put an end to the media’s favourite obsession. We can get on with the job without the noises off.
And I am absolutely confident that if we can unite in the days ahead then in due course we will win again, repay the trust of the 14 million who voted for us, and continue to serve the country we love.
Inside Parliament, the question on everyone’s lips isn’t whether or not Boris Johnson loses the vote of confidence this evening, it’s how fleeting will his victory be.
For Johnson to lose the vote would be catastrophic. Very few in Westminster thinks it is a real possibility, though nervous Johnson allies are quick to point out that only around half of the MPs needed to win the vote have publicly declared their support for the PM.
The reason for this, less nervous Conservatives say, is that, while Johnson might survive this vote, his personal approval ratings might continue to get worse in the weeks and months that follow. Therefore, publicly declaring support is a stain on your character that could be used by opposition parties next time there is a general election.
Portcullis House, one of the more modern buildings in parliament where MPs, journalists and political operatives gather to gossip, has been full of Johnson allies and enemies, briefing reporters on all possible outcomes.
None are saying that they expect Johnson to lose. Allies say this has to be a moment to move on. Enemies say this is merely the first flesh wound in Johnson’s ultimate demise.
Even the opposition Labour Party is briefing that they expect Johnson to survive this vote, however, they add that by hanging onto power Johnson makes the prospect of an early election even more likely.
For all the speculation, anything could happen once the votes are counted. It is a private ballot and lots of Conservatives have been notably silent.
One thing is for certain though: Both allies and enemies alike in Johnson’s Conservative party feel that today could have been avoided had he been more contrite in the aftermath of the Partygate scandal. This all feels like a self-inflicted wound that Johnson will not recover from any time soon.
As Conservative lawmakers prepare to decide on Boris Johnson’s future in Monday evening’s vote of confidence, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer says this will be “the beginning of the end” of the Prime Minister’s political career – no matter which way the vote goes.
Johnson took office in July 2019 after winning the Tory party leadership contest. He replaced outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.
May was out of office less than a year after winning a vote of confidence.
Confidence in the Prime Minister has been shaken by the so-called “Partygate” scandal. He has also been criticized for his response to a cost-of-living crisis.
“He’s also got no plan for the country,” added Starmer. “I think those two things mean that it’s in the national interest that he goes.”
Boris Johnson will face the darkest moment of his premiership on Monday evening, after it was finally announced after days of speculation that enough letters had been submitted by his own Conservative Party lawmakers to hold a confidence vote in his leadership.
The letters come after months of Johnson being dogged by the so-called “Partygate” scandal and after he was booed in public during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Despite the obvious stress of facing a vote that could ultimately end his time in office, Johnson will to some extent be relieved for more than one reason.
Read the full analysis here:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson took office in July 2019 after winning the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party leadership contest. He replaced outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May.
In December 2020, Johnson’s Conservative Party secured a majority in a general election, paving the way for Johnson to pass his Brexit deal and take the UK out of the European Union.
Recently, Johnson has been under immense pressure over parties and social gatherings held by Downing Street staff when the rest of the country was under strict Covid-19 restrictions. The Prime Minister himself was among those fined by police for breaching the lockdown rules.
Today, Johnson faces a vote of confidence by his own Conservative Party’s lawmakers. If he loses, he will be forced to step down as Prime Minister.
Take a look at his life in pictures here:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will address the Conservative Party’s 1922 Committee ahead of a vote of confidence over his future on Monday.
Johnson will speak to the group of Conservative backbenchers at 11 a.m ET Monday, a Downing Street spokesperson told CNN.
The vote of confidence will be held in secret between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday local time (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET).
The vote comes after Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said Monday that the number of Conservative Party parliamentarians calling for the vote had reached the necessary threshold of 54.
Confidence in the Prime Minister’s leadership has been shaken by the so-called “Partygate” scandal. He has also been criticized for his response to a cost-of-living crisis.
If 180 Conservative lawmakers – a simple majority – vote against Johnson, he will cease to be leader of the governing Conservative Party.
If Johnson wins the vote, he will remain both as party leader and Prime Minister, and another confidence vote will not be permitted for 12 months. However, it is possible that these rules can be rewritten by the Conservative Party.
Boris Johnson’s political career is on the line as he faces a vote of confidence on Monday evening.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is a confidence vote?
A vote of confidence is a formal process in which members of a parliamentary party vote on whether or not they want the current leader to remain.
Under Conservative Party rules, if members of parliament (MPs) want to get rid of their leader, they submit a confidential letter of no confidence to the chair of the 1922 Committee, who keeps them secret, not even revealing how many letters have been submitted.
A threshold of 15 percent of party members must be reached to trigger a confidence vote.
There are currently 359 Conservative MPs. The 15 percent threshold was met when 54 letters of no confidence from disgruntled lawmakers in Johnson’s own party were submitted to Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee.
All Conservative lawmakers will participate in the vote between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday local time (1 p.m. to 3 p.m. ET), and the votes will be counted immediately afterward.
What happens if he loses the vote?
If the majority of Conservative MPs vote against him, Boris Johnson will have to step down as Conservative Party leader.
He could remain as Prime Minister while a replacement is found in a Tory leadership vote, but once that person is chosen, they’ll take over as Britain’s leader.
180 votes against Johnson will be needed to remove him.
And what if he wins?
If more than half of Tory MPs vote in support of Johnson, his leadership cannot be challenged with a confidence vote for 12 months. However, it is possible that these rules can be rewritten by the Conservative Party.
Even if a prime minister wins, a confidence vote ultimately tends to be fatal. Johnson’s predecessor Theresa May was out of office less than a year after winning a vote of confidence.
