A new vote of no confidence in Boris Johnson was tabled today by the Lib Dems after the Tory leader clung to power.
Leader Sir Ed Davey said every Tory MP with a “shred of decency” should support his motion in the Commons after the PM survived a Tory party no confidence vote 211-148 - with 41% of his MPs voting against him.
A parliamentary motion would allow MPs of all parties, not just Conservatives, to express a view on whether the PM should go.
But it has almost zero chance of being debated, let alone voted on, due to the way Parliament works.
It will only be an ‘Early Day Motion’. These are effectively petitions by MPs which, for the most part, exist without a debate in Parliament ever happening.
The motion will also express no confidence in the Prime Minister personally - not the government. No confidence votes in the “government” are considered more likely to prompt a government’s downfall.
Even if the motion did express no confidence in the government, it would have to be in Labour ’s name - not the Lib Dems’ - to guarantee selection and a debate on the floor of the House of Commons.
It’s understood Labour has no current plans to bring a no confidence vote, either in the PM or the government.
The Lib Dems have done the same thing as today twice already, in July 2019 and January 2022.
Each time their motion had no consequences, with the one in January gaining only 23 signatures.
Despite this, Sir Ed challenged Tory ministers to make debating time for it, to avoid looking like it feared losing.
He said: “Every Conservative MP who has a shred of decency must back our motion and finally give Johnson the sack.
“ Boris Johnson might have a slim majority among Conservative MPs, but it is clear that the British public no longer hold confidence in him. MPs from all parties must have the chance to make that clear.”
The early day motion says “that this House has no confidence in the Prime Minister because he has broken the Covid lockdown laws his Government introduced, misled Parliament and the public about it, and failed to take action to support millions of families in the midst of a cost of living emergency.”
Meanwhile Labour will try to force a vote this afternoon on tightening up ethics rules in the wake of Tory sleaze involving the MP Owen Paterson.
The party will urge Tory MPs to back a motion implementing a final report from November by the Committee on Standards in Public Life.
The report recommended greater enforcement of the ‘revolving door’ between government and private sector jobs and ‘greater independence in the regulation of the Ministerial Code’.
It comes after Boris Johnson watered down the Ministerial Code to say a breach should not always lead a minister to resign.
Labour’s motion calls on the PM’s Chief of Staff Steve Barclay to make a statement on “progress made in implementing the recommendations by 20 July 2022”.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “Boris Johnson has downgraded, debased and demeaned standards in public life.
“He has sunk into the gutter but it’s now up to Conservative MPs to do the decent thing. It’s time to stop the rot.”
