UK PM Johnson survives confidence vote as 211 of his MPs vote for him

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday survived a vote of confidence in his leadership as 211 Conservative Party members of Parliament voted in favour of him staying on as their leaderBut the end result which Johnson insisted was decisively in his favour saw as many as 148 Tory members of Parliament voting against him iquest a 588 per cent for versus 412 per cent againstThat figure led to his critics branding it a damaging outcome for his longterm future as the party leader while his supporters point out he has the backing of a majority of his partyI think this is a very good result for politics and for the country said Johnson in reaction to the ballotJust in this sense I think its 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 Ive got a far bigger mandate from my own parliamentary colleagues for instance than I had in 2019iquest he declared It rounded off a frenzied day of political high drama and speculation as Johnson 57 made personal pleas to his party backbenchers to keep their faith in him as Prime Minister despite the bruising partygate scandal of COVID lawbreaking parties at Downing Street and across government offices The vote is held as a secret ballot with 180 being the cut off for Johnson to win the challenge iquest given the halfway mark of the Tory parliamentary party membership of 359 if abstentions are not taken into accountHis allies had been keen to stress that a victory in the contest even by just one vote would put a rest to an issue that has overshadowed the governments focus on other pressing political concernsTonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on delivering on the peoples priorities the Downing Street said in a statementThe PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when theyre united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force it saidThe ballot came as Sir Graham Brady chair of the powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs declared that he had received the requisite 54 letters of noconfidence to trigger the voteUnder the current Conservative Party rules Johnson is now safe from a backbench challenge for at least 12 monthsBut the political consensus is that he is by no means home safe with two important byelections looming on June 23 and a big defeat in those could be taken as a public referendum against his leadership and keep the discontent on the backbenches aliveAlso read Boris had everything but blew it Wife LillyIn many ways the clock is still ticking on Johnsons leadership as his hold on the party has been visibly shakenIn the case of Johnsons predecessor at Downing Street Theresa May a victory in a noconfidence vote back in 2018 did not prevent her forced exit a few months later to make way for himWhile backbench anger has grown since Sue Gray published her official report into lockdown parties within government offices last month the Cabinet had largely rallied to the PMs side iquest including Indianorigin Chancellor and potential frontrunner for the top job Rishi SunakThe PM has won the confidence vote and now its time to move forward Tomorrow we get back to work growing the economy and delivering better public services Sunak tweeted on Monday nightAhead of the vote Johnson wrote to his backbenchers to drum up their support and also addressed them privately a few hours before the ballot took placeThe frontrunner in the backbench rebellion was former UK Foreign and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt who had called on the party to vote for change in the secret ballotBut for now Johnson has been successful in holding on to his position as party leader and UK Prime MinisterThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever