A NO-CONFIDENCE vote in Prime Minister Boris Johnson will take place tonight, the chairman on the 1922 Committee has confirmed.
Some 54 letters are needed to trigger such a vote, and Tory rebels reported that this figure was hit over the weekend.
Writing to Tory MPs, Brady confirmed the figure had been exceeded.
MPs were informed: “The threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.
“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 TODAY MONDAY 6TH JUNE – details to be confirmed.
“The votes will be counted immediately afterwards. An announcement will be made a time to be advised. Arrangements for the announcement will be released later today.”
Speaking to the media after informing Conservative MPs of the process, Brady said he had already spoken to Johnson - and the PM wanted the vote to take place as soon as possible.
Downing Street said Johnson “welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs”, with a Number 10 spokeswoman saying tonight’s vote was “a chance to end months of speculation and allow the Government to draw a line and move on”.
It came as Jesse Norman was the latest Tory MP to announce he has submitted a letter to Brady calling for a confidence vote.
In a letter to the Prime Minister posted on social media, Norman, the MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, said Johnson had presided over “a culture of casual law-breaking” in No 10 and that his claim to be vindicated by the Sue Gray report was “grotesque”.
Norman said that Boris Johnson’s current policy priorities were “deeply questionable” and that there were no circumstances in which he could serve in a government led by him.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Norman, a former minister, warned that any breach of the Northern Irish Protocol would be “economically very damaging, politically foolhardy and almost certainly illegal”.
“You are the leader of the Conservative and Unionist party, yet you are putting the Union itself gravely at risk,” he said.
He said the Government’s Rwanda policy was “ugly, likely to be counterproductive and of doubtful legality” and that plans to privatise Channel 4 were “unnecessary and provocative”.
Jeremy Hunt, who has made it clear he would like to lead the party instead of Johnson, said on Twitter he would be voting against the Prime Minister. It is not known whether he is one of the MPs who sent a letter to Brady.
He said: "The Conservative Party must now decide if it wishes to change its leader. Because of the situation in Ukraine this was not a debate I wanted to have now but under our rules we must do that.
The Conservative Party must now decide if it wishes to change its leader. Because of the situation in Ukraine this was not a debate I wanted to have now but under our rules we must do that.
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) June 6, 2022
"Having been trusted with power, Conservative MPs know in our hearts we are not giving the British people the leadership they deserve. We are not offering the integrity, competence and vision necessary to unleash the enormous potential of our country.
"And because we are no longer trusted by the electorate, who know this too, we are set to lose the next general election.
"Anyone who believes our country is stronger, fairer & more prosperous when led by Conservatives should reflect that the consequence of not changing will be to hand the country to others who do not share those values. Today’s decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change."
More than 30 Tory MPs have called on Johnson to resign in recent weeks – but the Scottish Tories have remained tight-lipped. Aberdeenshire and West Kincardine MP Andrew Bowie questioned Johnson’s position and suggested big decisions lie ahead for his colleagues, but stopped short of calling for him to leave post.
Scottish Tory chief Douglas Ross continues to argue that the war in Ukraine means a leadership challenge would not be appropriate, after initially saying Johnson should resign back in January.
MPs are increasingly frustrated with Johnson in the wake of the damning Sue Gray report into lockdown-breaching parties held across Whitehall and Downing Street.
They will be further concerned that the Tory chief was booed twice by royal supporters over the weekend’s Jubilee celebrations.
UK Government Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Monday that he thought a confidence vote was likely.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, Javid said: “My understanding probably isn’t much more than yours because you’ll probably know, or many of your viewers will know, that to have what’s called the vote of confidence requires at least 54 of my colleagues to write into Sir Graham Brady, to ask for one.
“Now, will that happen? I don’t know. That’s that’s a decision for my colleagues. I think it’s likely that something like that will happen.
“But it’s not something that I could tell you definitively.
“But it’s not what I think actually the country needs,” he added.
“I hope there isn’t – you have to be prepared but I think that what the country wants is for the Government to get on and focus on the job at hand, which we are.”
