Labour have said it will confirm a no confidence vote in the House of Commons should Boris Johnson remain in No 10.
Yesterday the prime minister announced his intention to step down as Tory leader once a new candidate had been selected by the party.
Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning: “We will if the Conservatives don’t get their act together and get rid of Boris Johnson, you know, he’s got no confidence of his own party.
“He’s a proven liar who’s engulfed in sleaze and we can’t have another couple of months of this, you know.
“So they do have to get rid of him, and if they don’t, we will call a no confidence vote because it’s pretty clear – he hasn’t got the confidence of the House or the British public.”
The last prime minister to be successfully removed from office via such a vote was Labour’s James Callaghan ahead of Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 election victory.
Newly appointed education secretary James Cleverly admitted today that there was “no timeline” on when Johnson would leave office.
Speaking to Times Radio, the recent foreign office minister explained that Johnson has “said he will stay until the process is complete, he’s not put a timeline on this.
“The timeline on this will be defined by the 1922 committee in terms of the parliamentary stage and by the Conservative party in terms of the party stage.
“Both organisations know how important it is to get this done professionally and quickly and I don’t think the prime minister has put a particular date on anything.”
As Her majesty’s Opposition, Labour are entitled to table such votes whenever they please. However such moves have usually been attempted in the past with a decent threshold of certainty that they could work in favour of the Opposition.
While many Conservative MPs have expressed their frustrating at Johnson’s current refusal to step down for a caretaker PM, it is unclear whether enough of them would vote to oust him, should it come to a vote.
If the government loses the vote, the prime minister must step down or fight a general election.
More to follow
