Boris Johnson to face no confidence vote tonight

Boris Johnson to face no confidence vote tonight

The chair of the 1922 committee, Sir Graham Brady, has confirmed that Conservative MPs will hold a no confidence vote in the prime minster later today.

This comes after a number of Conservative MPs announced that they had submitted letters of no confidence.

When quizzed over his conversation with Boris Johnson over the matter, Brady said: “I am not going to go into detail on that. I have followed the rules that we have in place.

Brady said he “notified” Johnson “ that the threshold” of 54 letters had been reached yesterday.

He said they had agreed that a “vote should happen as soon as could reasonably take place and that would be today.”

Sir Graham told reporters this morning that the vote will occur between 6pm and 8pm with the count to be publicised “shortly thereafter”.

Brady confirmed the threshold has been met in a statement released this morning, which read: “The threshold of 15 per cent of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.

“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 TODAY MONDAY 6th JUNE — details to be confirmed.

“The votes will be counted immediately afterwards. An announcement will be made at a time to be advised. Arrangements for the announcement will be released later today.”

Brady reiterated that he was not able to say exactly how many letters had been submitted.

When asked if any MPs had post-dated letters he said this was “not a bad description of what was taking place,” and that “some colleagues had asked specifically that it should not be until the end of the Jubilee celebrations.”

“Therefore we reached the point where I could communicate with the prime minister yesterday,” he went on.

A No 10 spokesman said this morning that: “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.”

Speaking with Sky News prior to the confirmation a vote would take place, health secretary Sajid Javid stressed that Johnson would  “fight and stand his corner” should the letter threshold be reached.

“If there is [a vote of no confidence], the prime minister will fight and stand his corner with a very, very strong case. So let’s just wait and see what happens.”

However Javid did admit that such a vote was “possible” after ministers suggested it was unlikely throughout last week.

Many MPs who have publicised their letters have cite concerns over rule breaking at Downing Street during lockdown restrictions.

In April the Metropolitan Police issued fines to both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak for violating Covid rules.

Johnson remains under investigation by the House of Commons privileges committee over whether he misled MPs via his comments on the Partygate affair.

Last month’s long-awaited publication of Sue Gray’s report into lockdown gatherings in Downing Street and Whitehall described events during which some staff got so drunk they vomited, wine was spilt on walls and aides brawled.

In order to oust Johnson in tonight’s vote,180 MPs from the total of 359 that currently have the Conservative whip would then need to vote against the prime minister for him to be removed from office.

It is unclear who would replace Boris Johnson, should he be forced to step down.

Defence secretary Ben Wallace is currently the most popular minister among the Tory grassroots, sitting at 80 per cent favourability according to the latest Conservative Home polling.

Foreign secretary Liz Truss is runner up at 67 pc while Nadhim Zahawi trails slightly behind her on 65.

Unsurprisingly, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has spoken in favour of the no confidence vote, telling LBC Radio that it is in the “national interest” that Johnson be removed from office.

Starmer also suggested that Johnson will likely step down, even if he wins today’s vote, stating: “I think history tells us that this is the beginning of the end. If you look at the previous examples of no confidence votes, even when Conservative prime ministers survive those, and he might survive it tonight, the damage is already done and usually they fall reasonably swiftly afterwards.”

Johnson is set to address Conservative MPs at 4pm today in a bid to gain their backing.

Over 80 Tory MPs have said they will vote to keep Johnson in his position.