Bruised Boris Johnson has claimed his narrow win of confidence from Tory MPs is an "extremely good" result - insisting he is even more popular than he was in 2019.
The Prime Minister spent the entire day pleading and begging Tories to vote for him in the embarrassing no confidence vote claiming the public would not forgive them for following "Westminster" issues.
He even told Tory MPs in a private Westminster meeting that “under my leadership” the party had won its biggest electoral victory in 40 years.
Tory MPs voted by 211 to 148 in support of the Prime Minister but the scale of the revolt against his leadership leaves him wounded.
The Prime Minister survived the confidence ballot but it means 41.2% of his own party do not believe he is fit to remain leader of the Party.
When 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.
Mr Johnson said the Government can now "move on" after the "conclusive, decisive" result and insists he is not interested in snap elections.
But in reality, he could suffer further blows in two key by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton on June 23.
Most of Scotland’s Tory MPs voted against the PM keeping his job, including Douglas Ross and Andrew Bowie.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has said Tory MPs failed to “show some backbone”, choosing to “ignore” public sentiment and throw their weight behind the PM.
In a short statement, Mr Starmer said: "The Conservative Party now believes that good government focused on improving lives is too much to ask.
“The Conservative Party now believes that breaking the law is no impediment to making the law.
“The Conservative Party now believes that the British public have no right to expect honest politicians."
Sir Roger Gale, an outspoken critic of the PM who voted “no confidence”, said he still thinks Mr Johnson should not take the party into the next election.
He told Sky News: "I don’t believe that he should take the party into the next general election and I think there are other elephant traps down the road – two by-elections coming up, the Privileges Committee report in the autumn – there are a lot of hurdles ahead and I think a Prime Minister of honour would look at the figures, accept the fact that he has lost the support of a significant proportion of his party and consider his position, but I don’t think he’ll do that.”
