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.
“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”.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, agreed the vote would be a chance to “draw a line” under the affair.
Responding to Conservative MP Jesse Norman’s statement, the cabinet minister said MPs are “entitled to their views and to express them and that’s how we come to a decision”.
“Jesse’s entitled his views,” he added. “I’m entitled to my views and my view is that we don’t 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”.
Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, also tweeted: “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.”
