Boris Johnson is facing demands for a wholesale cull of his cabinet after scraping through a vote of no confidence in his leadership by 211 votes to 148.
The PM’s victory in the ballot of Tory MPs spared him the humiliation of ejection from 10 Downing Street by his own party, but left him deeply wounded as he faces two by-elections later this month and a general election less than two years away.
The tally of 41.2 per cent of Tory MPs opposing the leader was far worse than expected by Mr Johnson’s allies and significantly higher than the 36.9 per cent voting no confidence in Theresa May six months before she was forced from office.
Speaking in Downing Street moments after the outcome was announced, Mr Johnson said the government could now “move on” following a “convincing” and “decisive” result. He denied that he was interested in calling a snap election to avoid being a lame duck prime minister.
“We’re going to bash on,” said the prime minister. “As a result of this decision by the parliamentary party, which I welcome, we have a conclusion to something which has been dragging on for far too long and we have the ability now to unite, deliver and get on with the people’s priorities, and that is what we are going to do.”
But critics made it clear that they will not relent in their calls for him to go. Veteran MP Sir Roger Gale said Mr Johnson had “lost the support of a significant portion of his party” and should consider his position. Following the “severely damaging” result, Sir Roger said he would be “surprised if the prime minister is still in Downing Street in the autumn”.
Another MP who submitted a no-confidence letter in Mr Johnson’s leadership told The Independent: “He’s finished. The cabinet ought to step in.” And another described the damage done to his premiership as “terminal”. York MP Julian Sturdy said the PM should “consider his position” as he “no longer enjoys the full-hearted confidence of the parliamentary party”.
One government minister said it was “game on” for a leadership contest within the next six months, while a Tory rebel declared the result “fatal”.
“We will have a new party leader by the party conference in October. The result in the two upcoming by-elections will help us scrub off the other 32 votes we need. But if the cabinet had any balls they would go in and tell him to go,” they said.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said: “Conservative MPs made their choice tonight. They have ignored the British people and hitched themselves and their party firmly to Boris Johnson and everything that he represents.”
Critics said that if he is to remain in power, Mr Johnson must deliver a change in the style of his leadership and a radical revamp of his cabinet to remove hardline loyalists like Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, and Mark Spencer who are seen to have underperformed and antagonised voters.
In their place, backbenchers called for a more inclusive frontbench better reflecting the party’s liberal One Nation traditions, as well as a clearer vision of the direction in which Mr Johnson wants to take the country.
In an appeal to backbenchers just hours before the vote, Mr Johnson promised tax cuts and reductions in regulation and public spending as he urged MPs not to hand power to Labour by descending into “pointless fratricidal debate about the future of our party”.
But he risked infuriating Tories who have been on the receiving end of voter anger over Partygate by declaring: “I’d do it again.”
One former cabinet minister who voted for Mr Johnson said he needed a stronger team around him as he attempts to win back trust in the wake of the partygate scandal.
The MP told The Independent: “He needs to appoint cabinet ministers who know their own minds and who don’t give statements that sound sycophantic and, frankly, f***ing stupid.”
Another senior Tory MP said a “massive cull” of the current cabinet was needed, describing many of them as “rubbish”.
One MP who voted against Mr Johnson said that after surviving a confidence vote he had to appoint a “wider” group of cabinet ministers, from different wings of his party, following complaints too many support a hard line on Brexit.
There was anger among even MPs who support Mr Johnson after Ms Dorries lashed out at potential leadership contender Jeremy Hunt, and in doing so appeared to admit that the Conservative government’s pandemic planning had been “inadequate”.
Others said that members of the cabinet parroting “lines to take” on the Partygate scandal have made them and the prime minister look stupid.
There was fury from the prime minister’s allies at Mr Johnson being forced into a no-confidence vote, with one senior MP describing rebellious colleagues as a “lying sack of snaky b*****ds”
Under party rules overseen by the chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, Mr Johnson’s victory makes him safe from a further challenge for 12 months.
However, senior figures in the committee have made clear that it is possible for the rules to be changed to allow an earlier challenge. And Mr Johnson also faces the possibility of a visit by the “men in grey suits” telling him that it is time for him to stand down.
But allies of Mr Johnson declared the win “comprehensive”, with foreign minister James Cleverly calling on Tory MPs to respect the result.
Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, said it was time to “draw a line under this now”. Claiming that Mr Johnson had won “handsomely”, Mr Zahawi said: “Fifty per cent plus one is a majority. Boris did much better than that.”
A Downing Street source described it as “a decisive win that renews the PM’s mandate and allows the government to focus relentlessly on the issues that concern our voters and deliver on their priorities”.
But former cabinet minister Rory Stewart, who was kicked out of the party by Mr Johnson after standing against him for the leadership in 2019, calculated that around 75 per cent of backbenchers had voted to remove him.
“This is the end for Boris Johnson,” said Mr Stewart. “The only question is how long the agony is prolonged.”
The day’s drama was kicked off by an 8am announcement from Sir Graham that he had received at least 54 letters from MPs demanding a confidence vote.
Sir Graham revealed that some MPs had postdated their letters to Monday to avoid disrupting celebrations of the Queen’s platinum jubilee, but refused to reveal the total received – with some reports suggesting that as many as 67 MPs had sent letters.
It later emerged that Mr Johnson was informed early on Sunday that he was facing a vote, and agreed with Sir Graham that it should be held the following day.
This left him to spend several hours in front of the TV cameras watching a jubilee parade at Buckingham Palace, before calling close allies – including campaigns guru Sir Lynton Crosby – to a crisis summit in his Downing Street flat to plan the battle to save his job.
A letter from the PM was sent to every MP, promising tax cuts if he remained in post, and saying that the vote provided a “golden opportunity” to draw a line under the “media obsession” with Partygate.
Loyal lieutenants were sent out to talk up the prime minister’s prospects, with Jacob Rees-Mogg insisting that his position was secure even if he won by a single vote – despite having argued in 2018 that Theresa May should quit if she lost the confidence of a third of Tory MPs.
Ms Dorries raised hackles with a ferocious assault on Mr Hunt after the former foreign secretary became the most senior Tory to call for Mr Johnson to go, accusing him of “duplicity” and saying he had made “inadequate” preparations for a pandemic while running the Department of Health.
Former minister Jesse Norman issued a blistering attack on the PM’s character and record, denouncing his claims to have been vindicated by the Sue Gray Partygate report as “grotesque”.
And Tory MP John Penrose quit as Mr Johnson’s anti-corruption tsar, saying it would not be “honourable or right” for him to stay on as PM, while Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross confirmed he would vote for his removal. Another Scottish MP, John Lamont, quit as a parliamentary aide in order to be able to vote against Mr Johnson.
Eyebrows were raised when the potential contender for the Tory succession Penny Mordaunt failed to join fellow ministers in issuing a message of support for the PM, but instead published an article to commemorate the anniversary of D-Day in which she praised the “humble, honest and hard working” leadership of Dwight Eisenhower and warned: “Confidence without competence is a dangerous combination.”
Meanwhile, a poll of Tory activists by the ConservativeHome website made ominous reading for the PM, with 58 per cent of the 1,058 party members surveyed agreeing he should be ousted and just 41 per cent wanting him to stay.
In a defiant last-minute appeal to MPs, Mr Johnson risked infuriating critics of his handling of Partygate by telling them: “I’d do it again.”
In a bid to regain control of the political initiative, he is due to make keynote speeches over the coming fortnight on housing and the economy, for the latter of which he will be joined by chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Neither Ms May nor the other former Tory prime ministers Sir John Major and David Cameron issued a statement of support for Mr Johnson.
