British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has survived a confidence vote but a large rebellion in his Conservative Party over the so-called "partygate" scandal has dealt a blow to his authority.
Mr Johnson won the vote on Monday (local time) 211 to 148, according to Graham Brady, chairman of the party committee that oversaw the ballot.
The result means he cannot face another no-confidence vote for a year.
But Mr Johnson's 59 per cent share of the vote was less than the 63 per cent achieved by his predecessor Theresa May in her confidence vote of December 2018.
She was replaced seven months later.
Mr Johnson said the result was good for politics and the country.
"I think it's a convincing result, a decisive result and what it means is that, as a government, we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people," he said.
"Of course, I understand that what we need to do now is come together as a government, as a party, and that is exactly what we can now do."
Mr Johnson, renowned for his ability to connect with voters, has recently struggled to turn the page on revelations that he and his staff repeatedly held boozy parties that flouted the COVID-19 restrictions they imposed on others.
To remain in office, he needed to win the backing of a simple majority of the 359 Conservative MPs.
The vote was triggered after the required 54 MPs — 15 per cent of the party's parliamentary membership — officially called for Mr Johnson to step down from the top job, following a damning report into the lockdown parties held at his Downing Street residence.
Result the 'worst of all worlds'
Several MPs said the vote was worse than expected for a prime minister, once seemingly unassailable after winning the Conservatives' largest majority in more than three decades.
"Boris Johnson will be relieved at this vote. But he will also understand that the next priority is to rebuild the cohesion of the party," David Jones, a former minister, told Reuters.
"I am sure he will be equal to the challenge."
Others were less optimistic, with one Conservative MP saying on condition of anonymity: "It is clearly much worse than most people were expecting. But it is too early to say what will happens now."
Roger Gale, a long-time critic of Mr Johnson, urged the Prime Minister "to go back to Downing Street tonight and consider very carefully where he goes from here".
Opposition Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer said on Twitter the choice for the British public was now "clearer than ever before".
"Divided Tories propping up Boris Johnson with no plan to tackle the issues you are facing," he said.
"Or a united Labour Party with a plan to fix the cost of living crisis and restore trust in politics."
Scotland's pro-independence First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the result was "surely the worst of all worlds for the Tories".
"But much more importantly: at a time of huge challenge, it saddles the UK with an utterly lame duck PM," she said.
"And for Scotland, it just underlines the democratic deficit — only two of [Scotland's] 59 MPs have confidence in the PM."
After 'partygate' report, Johnson booed during jubilee
With no clear front-runner to succeed him, most political observers had predicted he would defeat the challenge.
But the rebellion represents a watershed moment for him — and is a sign of deep Conservative divisions, less than three years after Mr Johnson led the party to its biggest election victory in decades.
MP Jesse Norman, a longtime Johnson supporter, said the Prime Minister had "presided over a culture of casual law-breaking" and had left the government "adrift and distracted."
An investigator's report late last month slammed a culture of rule-breaking inside the Prime Minister's office in the scandal known as "partygate".
Civil service investigator Sue Gray described alcohol-fuelled bashes held by Downing Street staff members in 2020 and 2021, when pandemic restrictions prevented UK residents from socialising or even visiting dying relatives.
Ms Gray said Mr Johnson and senior officials must bear responsibility for "failures of leadership and judgement".
Mr Johnson also was fined 50 pounds ($92) by police for attending one party, making him the first Prime Minister sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.
He said he was "humbled" and took "full responsibility" — but insisted he would not resign.
Discontent that has been building for months erupted after a 10-day parliamentary break that included a long weekend of celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee.
For many, the four-day holiday was a chance to relax — but there was no respite for Mr Johnson, who was booed by some onlookers as he arrived for a service in the Queen’s honour at St Paul’s Cathedral on Friday.
Senior frontbenchers and political allies had called for the party to back the Prime Minister, urging consistency and stability in the party.
Pressure on leadership to continue
Despite his victory, Mr Johnson is likely to face more pressure.
The war in Ukraine, a simmering post-Brexit feud with the EU and soaring inflation are all weighing on the government.
Polls give the left-of-centre opposition Labour Party a lead nationally, and the Conservatives could lose special elections later this month for two parliamentary districts, called when incumbent Tory MPs were forced out by sex scandals.
Mr Johnson tried to focus on broader issues, promising colleagues he would cut taxes — a policy popular with Tories — and noting that he spoke on Monday to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
He has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine's cause, a stance shared by his possible successors.
Cabinet minister Steve Barclay, a Johnson ally, said toppling the leader now would be "indefensible."
But Steve Baker, a strong Brexit supporter whose opposition to Ms May helped Mr Johnson take power, said he was voting for Mr Johnson to go because the Prime Minister had broken the law.
He predicted before the vote that Mr Johnson would likely "formally win" but said that would not settle the matter.
"What that means over the months ahead, I don't know," Mr Baker said.
ABC/wires
