Tory rebels have pledged to continue trying to oust Boris Johnson from office even though he had already made it plain he would not resign after MPs voted by 211 to 148 to keep him as party leader and prime minister, according to the Guardian.
The newspaper reported that some of the 148 MPs, or 40%, who refused to support BoJo in Monday’s confidence vote, are believed to be “implacably opposed” to Johnson’s premiership.
The Guardian claimed that the rebel Conservative Party members will hold the PM’s feet to the fire as the next “Partygate” probe into whether Johnson misled parliament by denying any COVID rules were breached in Downing Street “gets under way in the coming weeks”.
Several unnamed sources were cited by the newspaper as saying that the government whipping operation to make wavering MPs back Johnson ahead of the confidence vote had been “appalling” and seemed to collapse due to Monday’s “rebellion”, which purportedly means that the PM was now on “borrowed time”.
Government insiders, in turn, told the Guardian that the margin of Johnson’s victory did not matter, with one cabinet minister saying “a win is a win”. They added that given the result, the rebel MPs needed to either “change the rules or shut the f**k up”.
At the same time, Johnson’s senior ally argued that the PM’s cabinet was “nearing the beginning of the end” because BoJo’s opponents were allegedly “implacably opposed” and determined to topple him no matter what.
Johnson has, meanwhile, stated that the government could now “move on” following a “convincing” and “decisive” result of the confidence vote. He denied that he was interested in calling a snap general election to avoid being a lame duck prime minister.
“We’re going to bash on. As a result of this decision by the parliamentary party, which I welcome, we have a conclusion to something which has been dragging on for far too long and we have the ability now to unite, deliver and get on with the people’s priorities, and that is what we are going to do”, he added.
The confidence vote came about two weeks after the publication of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s full-blown report into 16 alleged No 10 COVID rule-breaking parties held in 2020 and 2021. Speaking to MPs after the document’s release, BoJo said he takes “full responsibility” for partying but denied he had ever knowingly misled them about the events.
In the report, Gray in particular wrote that “there were failures of leadership and judgment by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times”, and that “some of the events should not have been allowed to take place”, while other Downing Street social gatherings “should not have been allowed to develop as they did”.