Boris Johnson faces confidence vote - but will Cambridgeshire’s Conservative MPs continue to back the Prime Minister?
Boris Johnson faces a vote of confidence from Conservative MPs this evening (Monday, June 6) amid anger at partygate revelations and his leadership.
The Prime Minister was told on Sunday by Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, who confirmed he had received the 54 letters from Conservative MPs required to trigger the ballot.
A secret ballot will take place at Westminster between 6pm and 8pm, with the count to take place immediately afterwards.
Cambridgeshire’s five Conservative MPs - Anthony Browne (South Cambridgeshire), Lucy Frazer (Cambridgeshire South East), Jonathan Djanogly (Huntingdon), Shailesh Vara (North West Cambridgeshire) and Steve Barclay MP (North East Cambridgeshire) - will be among those to have a say on whether the PM should stay in post in the wake of Sue Gray’s report into breaches of the Covid regulations at No 10 and Whitehall.
The discontent goes beyond the lockdown-busting parties, however, with concern over economic policies that have seen the tax burden reach its highest in 70 years, and his style of leadership.
Mr Barclay is the Prime Minister’s chief of staff and made his position clear when writing on the ConservativeHome website, where he argued that the government was working to address the country’s economic problems and to deliver the levelling-up agenda to reduce regional inequality.
“To disrupt that progress now would be inexcusable to many who lent their vote to us for the first time at the last General Election, and who want to see our Prime Minister deliver the changes promised for their communities,” he said.
To oust the PM, the rebels will need 180 MPs to vote against him.
In the wake of the Sue Gray report, Pippa Heylings, the Liberal Democrat Parliamentary candidate for South Cambridgeshire, has called on Anthony Browne MP to act.
She said: “Our area deserves an MP who will stand up for local people who abide by the law. Instead, we have a Conservative MP who is hiding away after a damning report about their law-breaking Prime Minister.
“South Cambridgeshire deserves better than this. While local residents in South Cambridgeshire were making heartbreaking sacrifices, Boris Johnson’s Downing Street was the scene of raucous parties and disgraceful, bullying behaviour. We have all seen the pictures.
“It is time our Conservative MP did the decent thing and sacked Boris Johnson.”
Mr Browne worked closely with Mr Johnson when the latter was Mayor of London, but will know that his South Cambridgeshire seat is vulnerable to the Lib Dems.
Lucy Frazer, meanwhile, who is financial secretary to the Treasury, has proved very loyal to the government, and signalled her intention to support the PM in a tweet.
Among those who will be voting against the PM is former minister Jesse Norman, who was a long-standing supporter of Mr Johnson but published a scathing letter to the Prime Minister withdrawing his backing.
Mr Norman said the Gray report showed Mr Johnson “presided over a culture of casual law-breaking at 10 Downing Street” and “to describe yourself as ‘vindicated’ by the report is grotesque”.
But his criticism of Mr Johnson was far broader, including the “ugly” policy of sending migrants on a one-way trip to Rwanda, the “unnecessary and provocative” privatisation of Channel 4, the ban on noisy protests which “no genuinely Conservative government” should have introduced, and the lack of a “sense of mission” in his administration.
“You are simply seeking to campaign, to keep changing the subject and to created political and cultural dividing lines mainly for your advantage, at a time when the economy is struggling, inflation is soaring and growth is anaemic at best,” Mr Norman said, warning that Mr Johnson continuing in office would be “potentially catastrophic for this country”.
Sir Roger Gale has said he would vote for a leadership contest.
“There is a list of people who are likely to run,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Any single one of those would in my opinion make a better Prime Minister than the one we have got at the moment. And we are spoilt for choice.
"There are some very safe pairs of hands but I won't name names.”
He said there could be a leadership contest during the summer recess with a new leader in place by the time of the party conference.
But he acknowledged the possibility that the PM, under present rules, could be safe for a further year if he survived a vote.
He said he would not back Mr Johnson in a General Election because he was not the right man for the job. He added that while other previous leaders had resigned honourably, he did not expect Mr Johnson to do the same.
As well as facing trouble on his backbenches, Mr Johnson also faced public backlash during the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend.
He and wife Carrie were booed on Friday as they arrived at a thanksgiving service for the Queen at St Paul’s Cathedral.
But a number of the PM’s Cabinet colleagues have already leapt to his defence.
Speaking shortly after Sir Graham made his announcement, health secretary Sajid Javid told Sky News: “If there is (a vote) the Prime Minister will stand and fight his corner with a very, very strong case.”
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said: “The Prime Minister has my 100% backing in today’s vote and I strongly encourage colleagues to support him.
“He has delivered on Covid recovery and supporting Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression. He has apologised for mistakes made. We must now focus on economic growth.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said “the PM has shown the strong leadership our country needs”, adding: “I am backing him today and will continue to back him as we focus on growing the economy, tackling the cost of living and clearing the Covid backlogs.”
And Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab said: “The PM has got the big calls right – securing life-saving vaccines, firing up our economy and standing up to Putin’s aggression against Ukraine. We need to back him, unite and focus on delivering the people’s priorities.”
A No 10 spokeswoman said: “Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the Government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities.
“The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters, there is no more formidable political force.”
Sir Graham said he informed Mr Johnson on Sunday that the threshold of 15 per cent of the Parliamentary party calling for a vote had been passed.
“I have followed the rules that we have in place. I notified the Prime Minister yesterday and we agreed the timetable for the confidence vote to take place,” he said.
“He shared my view, which is also in line with the rules that we have in place, that that vote should happen as soon as it could reasonably take place, and that would be today.”
He indicated some Tory MPs had submitted letters post-dated until after the end of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, which meant the contest would not clash with the extended bank holiday festivities.
Mr Johnson will address the 1922 Committee today.
Regardless of the vote, the PM's leadership was already due to come under huge scrutiny this month, with by-elections in both Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton. Voters in the two constituencies will go to the polls on June 23.
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