LBritish Prime Minister Boris Johnson, weakened by months of Downing Street holiday scandals during the lockdowns, won a vote of no confidence on Monday, June 6, provoked by a revolt from his Conservative Party after the “Partygate” scandal. Boris Johnson obtained 211 votes from Conservative MPs in his favor against 148 asking for his departure in a secret ballot, which allows him to remain leader of the party and save his post as head of government.
At the end of 2018, Theresa May had survived a motion of no confidence with a wider margin than her successor, before resigning a few months later, too weakened to lead. Boris Johnson has so far totally refused to step down. It is a “convincing result, a decisive result”, commented Boris Johnson on television, congratulating himself on having won this vote. “As a government, we can move on and focus on the things that really matter,” he added.
After weeks of speculation, events rushed on Monday morning, barely closed the festive parenthesis of the celebrations of the 70 years of reign of Elizabeth II. The chairman of the Conservative Party’s 1922 committee, Graham Brady, announced that the fateful threshold of 54 letters from MPs, or 15% of the parliamentary group, demanding the departure of Boris Johnson, had been reached, triggering the vote.
“Sometimes the government can’t do everything”
Downing Street said on Monday that the organization of a vote of no confidence in British Prime Minister Boris Johnson offered an opportunity to “draw a line” on the scandals that have weakened him and to “move on”. ” [Le vote] tonight offers an opportunity to put an end to months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on by responding to the priorities of the people, ”responded the spokesman for Boris Johnson in a press release.
With this victory, Boris Johnson will not be able to be targeted by another motion of no confidence for a year, but his authority risks coming out of it considerably weakened. Pleading his case to his troops ahead of the vote, Boris Johnson had urged them to put an end to a saga he said was only of interest to the media to “talk exclusively about what we are doing for the people of this country”, according to a government official. Conservative party.
Addressing their Thatcherite streak, he had dangled tax cuts and cuts in the administration, contrasting with the massive public interventions of recent years in favor of the pandemic, or more recently of the crisis in the cost of life. “The time has come to recognize that sometimes the government cannot do everything,” he said. These explanations, and the efforts made all day by his most loyal ministers on television, are far from having convinced everyone.
Boris Johnson’s popularity down
Far from putting an end to the scandal that has plagued the Conservative government for six months, the publication last week of an administrative report detailing the extent of breaches of anti-Covid rules at Downing Street has prompted new calls for the resignation, announced in dribs and drabs. Boris Johnson, himself subject to a fine (unheard of for a Prime Minister in office), said he assumed “full responsibility for everything that happened” but felt he had to “continue” his work.
The scandal, along with soaring prices that are causing a historic drop in household purchasing power, has already caused its popularity to plummet, leading to heavy setbacks for the Conservatives in local elections in early May. He maintained himself by highlighting in particular his leading role in the Western response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He has so far also been favored by the lack of an obvious successor in the ranks of the Conservatives, who have been in power for 12 years in the United Kingdom.
More than 100 elected officials gave him their support during the day and his most loyal ministers spent the day defending him on television. But the leader of the Conservatives in Scotland Douglas Ross announced he would vote against him, citing public “anger” over breaches of the Covid rules. He thus follows former minister Jeremy Hunt, considered a possible successor.
According to a poll released by Opinium on Monday, 59% of Britons want the Tories to oust their leader – but only 34% of majority voters.