Boris Johnson has won the confidence of fellow Conservative MPs this evening and will remain in power as the Prime Minister of the UK. The PM learned his fate when the result was publicly announced by Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee at 9pm this evening (June 6).
Johnson won enough votes to make it through, with 211 ministers voting in favour and 148 against him in a major Tory rebellion, with 359 total ballots cast. Every single Conservative MP took part in the vote on Monday, with the results meaning that Johnson received 58.8 per cent support of the party, with 41.2 per cent currently being against his current leadership.
It comes after a number of Tory MPs balloted for a vote of no confidence in Johnson's leadership, mainly following the Prime Minister's handling of the so-called partygate scandal. Voting closed at 8pm this evening, with the result being announced at 9pm via broadcast.
Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the Conservatives’ 1922 Committee and MP for Altrincham and Sale West, made the announcement on Monday morning (June 6) that the threshold of 15 per cent of Tory MPs had balloted to say they wanted a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister.
Following the announcement on Monday evening, it was announced that the current PM, who assumed office in 2019, Boris Johnson survived the confidence vote amid what was a substantial Tory rebellion.
Announcing the results at 9pm, Sir Graham Brady said: “Good evening. I can report as returning officer that 359 ballots were cast, no spoilt ballots, that the vote in favour of having confidence in Boris Johnson as leader was 211 votes and a vote against was 148 votes.
“And therefore, I can announce that the parliamentary party does have confidence in Boris Johnson.”
MPs casted their vote in Committee Room 10 on Monday evening. The MPs were ordered to surrender their phones to preserve the secrecy of the confidence vote process after two broke the rules to take photos of their ballot papers during the 2018 decision on Theresa May’s leadership, a Conservative source said.
MPs were through the committee room between 6pm and 8pm to vote with the ballots, which were then counted by the officers of the committee. The whole process today was overseen by Sir Graham Brady, who said he runs a “tight ship” – he was also in that position when Mrs May faced the same ordeal during her turbulent leadership.
The result shows that Johnson has done as badly percentage wise as John Major in 1995. He has performed worse than the vote of no confidence in Theresa May who had 133 votes against her, and worse than Thatcher v Heseltine in 1990, in which 147 no confidence votes were cast.
Following the announcement, opposition party Labour leader Keir Starmer said a “divided” Conservative Party is “propping up” Boris Johnson after the Prime Minister survived the confidence vote. He tweeted: “The choice is clearer than ever before: Divided Tories propping up Boris Johnson with no plan to tackle the issues you are facing.
“Or a united Labour Party with a plan to fix the cost-of-living crisis and restore trust in politics. Labour will get Britain back on track.”
