'Deep inside, he should recognise that, and turn his mind to getting out in a way that spares party and country such agonies'
A number of senior Conservatives have demanded Boris Johnson quit as prime minister, after he won a no-confidence vote but with a sizeable rebellion that saw 41% of his own MPs voting to get rid of him.
Despite Downing Street trying to spin the result as a decisive victory for Johnson, the scale of the rebellion shows just how divided the Tory party is, with the proportion of MPs who voted against Johnson even greater than the votes against May in 2018 and Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Thatcher resigned a week later, while May resigned five months after her confidence vote.
Johnson’s team had initially been confident of keeping the rebellion to below three figures, with questions now flying around about the government’s whipping operation. Politico reported that wavering MPs made it known that they had had zero contact from the whips on Monday.
The result leaves Johnson’s credibility, if he had any left, in tatters and seriously undermines his authority. Now senior Tory MPs like Andrew Bridgen have said that Johnson ‘should leave with honour’, while former leader William Hague has warned: “While Johnson has survived the night, the damage done to his premiership is severe.”
Hague added: “Words have been said that cannot be retracted, reports published that cannot be erased, and votes have been cast that show a greater level of rejection than any Tory leader has ever endured and survived.
“Deep inside, he should recognise that, and turn his mind to getting out in a way that spares party and country such agonies and uncertainties.”
Meanwhile, Tory MP Tobias Ellwood told Sky News that yesterday’s result was a stay of execution” for the prime minister who he expects to survive for “a matter of months”.
The final result of the no-confidence vote saw Johnson gain the support of 211 MPs while 148 voted against him.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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