South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne explains why he won’t reveal if he supported Prime Minister in confidence vote

Additional reporting: Alex Spencer.

South Cambridgeshire MP Anthony Browne has said he will not declare whether he backed the Prime Minister in the confidence vote.

The Conservative MP said the ballot was “very secret” for a good reason, as MPs must be able to “vote without any hint of fear or favour”.

If everyone declared their position, it “would seriously undermine the integrity of democracy and give power to the government to influence the outcome”, he argued.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived Monday’s confidence vote by winning 211 votes, but a significant minority of 148 Tory MPs voted against him.

Among those backing him was South East Cambridgeshire MP Lucy Frazer, who declared her position on Twitter ahead of the vote, stating: “Tonight I will be voting to support the PM who was elected by the British people. We need to continue our work to improve the lives of those we were elected to serve and focus our energies on the challenges that face us. We will be judged on our delivery at the next election.”

Ms Frazer, who became financial secretary to the Treasury in 2021, has enjoyed a significant majority in her constituency.

But Mr Browne is in a far more perilous position, with the Liberal Democrats threatening to seize his South Cambridgeshire seat, just as they have taken control of the district council.

Mr Browne worked closely with Mr Johnson when the latter was mayor of London, but rebuffed calls to reveal his position on whether the embattled Prime Minister, heavily criticised over the Partygate scandal and his leadership style, should go.

“On Monday, like every other Conservative MP, I voted in the vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister,” said Mr Browne.

“It is not just a secret ballot, but a very secret ballot. For good reason. When you enter the ballot room, you have to hand in your phone, which you only get back once you have voted.

“The reason, I am told, is that the last time there was a vote of no confidence, under the last Prime Minister, party managers required all ministers to take and send out pictures of their ballot paper, showing they had supported the government. That is not genuine democracy.

“On an issue this important, deciding the future of the Prime Minister, it is essential that MPs can vote without any hint of fear or favour. If everyone is required or expected to declare how they voted, it is not a secret ballot, and that would seriously undermine the integrity of the democracy and give power to the government to influence the outcome.

“This is why I have decided, along with many other MPs, not to declare how I have voted.

“This is now a decision made three times – the Conservative party selected a leader, the country confirmed him as our Prime Minister, and now the parliamentary party has confirmed him as leader.

“I maintain my anger at the events in Downing Street, which I have been very openly critical of. I supported the conclusions of the Sue Gray Inquiry, and support the inquiry by the Privileges Committee into whether the PM misled Parliament, which I know the country will be watching closely.

“But we do need to return to the main business of government. As a constituency MP, my focus has always been outside of the Westminster bubble, supporting the residents of South Cambridgeshire on issues ranging from quality of life, protection from unsustainable housing, reasonable transport improvements, and our local environment including rivers and streams.”

Pippa Heylings, the Liberal Democrats’ prospective parliamentary candidate for South Cambridgeshire, called on Mr Browne to resign the government whip, adding that Boris Johnson “will be safe in his position despite breaking the law and lying about it to the British people”.

Ms Heylings said: “We still do not know how Anthony Browne voted. However, Anthony Browne MP has said publicly: ‘It is unacceptable for those who make the rules to break them. That is a particularly passionately held feeling in the UK, a consequence of our deeply held belief in fair play, democracy, and everyone being equal under the law. I... would fight to defend it.’

“I therefore call on the local Conservative MP to do the decent thing and resign the party whip to show that he is not complicit with the lying and law-breaking, and that he really does empathise with the many people in South Cambridgeshire who made heartbreaking sacrifices during the pandemic, who are now facing spiralling prices and the cost of living crisis and who do not trust this Prime Minister.

“Britain needs new leadership which cares about integrity and that will devote all its time to solving a cost of living crisis and spiralling NHS waiting times. It is clear from this week that Boris Johnson cannot achieve that.

“At the next election in South Cambridgeshire, it will be a choice between four more years of Boris Johnson and a Liberal Democrat MP who will stand up for local people.”

The Labour MP for Cambridge, Daniel Zeichner, said: “The culture of the Conservative government is rotten to the core. Conservative MPs have made a choice that ignores the British public and betrays the standards we seek to uphold here in parliament. Their party is divided, with no plan for the future. The Labour Party remains laser focused on the issues that matter to people, tackling the many crises we face, from the soaring cost of living to climate change.”

Despite 41 per cent of his MPs having no confidence in him, Mr Johnson told his Cabinet colleagues on Tuesday: “We’re able now to draw a line under the issues that our opponents want to talk about and we’re able to get on with talking about what I think the people in this country want us to talk about, which is what we are doing to help them and to take the country forward.”

Mr Johnson’s authority faces further blows with tricky by-elections on June 23 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon.

SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford compared the Prime Minister’s reaction to surviving the confidence vote to that of the black knight in the 1975 comedy Monty Python And The Holy Grail.

Mr Johnson appeared to shout “not even a flesh wound” in response to the jibe.