Сhair of the backbench 1922 Committee Graham Brady has announced that there will be a vote of no confidence held in UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday, between 6pm and 8pm in the House of Commons.
According to Brady, "the threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded".
He added that "details will be confirmed" and "the votes will be counted immediately afterwards".
When earlier asked when the threshold had been passed, Brady said, “It’s complicated, as some colleagues asked specifically that it should not be until the end of the [Queen’s Platinum] Jubilee celebrations.”
A No 10 spokesperson, in turn, stated 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”.
“The PM [Boris Johnson] 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”, the spokesperson stressed.
The statement comes after Jesse Norman, the Tory MP and former Treasury Minister, tweeted that he had issued a letter of no confidence in Johnson.
“I have supported Boris Johnson for 15 years, for the London Mayoralty and for PM. Very sadly, I have written to him to say I can no longer do so", Norman pointed out.
The move brings the number of Conservative MPs who have publicly said they have submitted a letter calling for a no confidence vote close to 30. However, there are MPs who are thought to have submitted their letters in secret.
The Sunday Times reported last week that Brady had already received 67 letter of no confidence, while a total of 54 such letters (15 percent of the Conservative Party's 359 MPs) are needed for Johnson to face a confidence vote in a secret ballot. If BoJo fails to win the support of a majority of MPs in the vote, he will be forced to resign.
The developments follow the Telegraph reporting on Monday that Johnson’s allies have warned that there could be an early general election in Britain (next autumn or even earlier) as they try to prevent wavering Tory MPs from submitting letters of no confidence against BoJo.
Last week, the Guardian claimed that UK Conservative Party whips have started to phone “wavering” MPs in an attempt to secure their support for BoJo, who faces the growing threat of a no-confidence vote amid the “Partygate” row.
25 May saw the release of senior civil servant Sue Gray's full report, which found "failures of leadership and judgement" at the seat of UK government.
The 60-page document, delayed until the conclusion of a Metropolitan Police investigation that resulted in 126 Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) fines being issued, focused on 16 occasions when government staff allegedly socialised with food and drink at 10 Downing Street in breach of COVID-19 lockdown rules in 2020 and 2021.