LONDON — Boris Johnson defeated a challenge by rebels among his own members of parliament to remain leader of the governing Conservative Party and keep his job as British prime minister.
In a secret ballot in the U.K. Parliament on Monday evening, 211 Tory MPs voted for Johnson compared with 148 against. The result of the confidence motion was announced live on television by party grandee Graham Brady. A total of 359 Conservatives had been eligible to vote.
Pressure has been building on Johnson for weeks over so-called “partygate,” events in Downing Street during the pandemic for which the 57-year-old premier received a police fine. A report by senior civil servant Sue Gray found many of them shouldn’t have been allowed.
