The retention of Prime Minister Boris Johnson tonight is in jeopardy, amid signs that support for his leadership in the Conservative Party is waning after several disastrous defeats in the midterm elections.
As Labor took the totem spot on Wakefield’s red wall and the Liberal Democrats overturned a record majority in the midterm elections to take the “real blue” Tiverton & Honiton in Devon, an MP who backed Mr Johnson in a vote of no confidence before three weeks, The Independent said he and others could no longer support the prime minister.
Tory President Oliver Dowden has resigned, citing “trouble and frustration” for party members from the Partygate scandal and saying: “Someone has to take responsibility”.
And former leader Michael Howard has suggested other ministers follow him from the cabinet as he becomes the last grandee to call on the prime minister to leave.
Johnson himself insisted he would not be “crushed”, and Downing Street rejected his calls to return to London from a nine-day trip abroad, attending summits of the British Community, the G-7 and NATO to stabilize its unrest. party.
Veteran MP Sir Jeffrey Clifton-Brown was among those who called on the prime minister to “go home” and outline how to “resolve the really serious situation in which the country finds itself”.
The calls came when a cabinet minister told The Independent that the mood had “changed” after the double defeats, with indications that Mr Johnson’s future successors were taking steps towards more solid leadership campaigns.
A senior judge told The Independent: “I voted for Boris last time, but I just don’t see any way out for him at the moment.
“The question now is when, not whether. The public has decided. We made a mistake by sticking with John Major in the 1990s, and we can’t go wrong with Johnson a second time.
“He does not help himself with the message he sent after the results, saying that he stays.
“He seems to be saying, ‘I put myself first and cling to as long as possible.’ This will make many of his supporters think, “I came to politics to serve the country and the party, not to serve you.”
The rebel Tories were preparing for a battle for a majority in the influential 1922 committee, which has the power to change party rules and propose a second vote on Mr Johnson’s future.
Andrew Bridgen told The Independent that he would run in next month’s election for the commission’s 18-member chief executive with a platform to remove a rule that requires a 12-month difference between no-confidence votes. Other lawmakers said they expected an offer from Downing Street to fill the executive branch with loyalists to prevent a new challenge.
It is believed that potential contenders in any leadership battle hope that Mr. Johnson’s removal can be achieved through a vote organized by the back committee to avoid them spoiling their prospects by being seen as “the one who who holds the knife. “
But critics of Johnson saw the visit of the “men in gray suits” as a more likely outcome, as one told The Independent that many of the 211 lawmakers who backed the prime minister in the June 6 vote of confidence had already taken given the disasters of the by-elections.
“The executive director of the 22nd will tell him to keep going, or the cabinet will tell him to keep going, or the chief whip will tell him to keep going,” one said. “If that doesn’t happen, there will be another vote, but it will be gone by the end of the year anyway.”
A current member of the executive confirmed that there is nothing in the rules that would prevent an MP from having a mandate to change them.
But some rebels believe this will not be necessary, as President Sir Graham Brady will be forced to act if it becomes clear that a majority of MEPs want change.
A senior lawmaker, who had previously filed a no-confidence motion against Johnson, told The Independent: “The prime minister has lost the country’s credibility and does not appear to be the winner in either the red wall or the blue wall. Of course he has to resign. He pulls everyone down, slowing down.
“But I don’t expect him to do it. I don’t think we have to wait long for him to be kicked out, but it’s in the hands of ’22.
“Further cabinet resignations would help, but I don’t think any of them will. They either drank Kool-Aid or took the 30 pieces of silver.
The Liberal Democrats are celebrating the by-elections by opening a door for Boris to resign
All eyes in Westminster were on Mr. Dowden to see if the former Secretary of Culture was joining a potential candidate for successor. He is close to Chancellor Rishi Sunak, who was quick to tweet his grief when he saw him leave.
The jubilant Keir Starmer said Labor’s takeover of Wakefield by 4,925, canceling the Tory majority of 3,358 in the 2019 election, shows that the country has “lost confidence in the Tories” and that his party is “ready for government”. .
And Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said his party’s remarkable victory in Tiverton – turning the 24,239 Tories lead into a majority of 6,144 for Liberal leader Richard Fourd with 29.9 percent hesitation – was a message from the British people to the prime minister. that “it’s really time to leave.”
The third incursion by Democrat leaders deep into traditional Tory territory, following the triumphs of the Chesham and Amersham and North Shropshire midterm elections, has caused a shudder in the backbone of many Conservative MPs, whose secure seats now seem vulnerable. Devon’s eastern constituency was the Conservatives’ 40th safest place, with 284 of the party’s deputies having a smaller majority.
Mr Johnson’s appearance at the British Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda was completely overshadowed by the collapse of the election at home.
He consoled himself at a press conference in the capital Kigali from his own triumph in the Hartlepool midterm elections in May 2021, telling reporters: “I will not pretend that these are brilliant results. We have to listen, we have to learn.
“But not so long ago – just over a year ago – we won a spectacular victory in the by-elections.
“When people have a hard time, they send messages to politicians and politicians have to respond, and that’s what we do.”
But just hours after the prime minister insisted he would “continue,” his position was brutally undermined by Lord Howard, who broke his silence on the issue of leadership to urge him to leave.
“The party and, more importantly, the country will be better off under the new leadership,” the former leader told the BBC, adding: “Cabinet members need to consider their positions very carefully.”
Public support for the prime minister by senior colleagues was weak on the ground.
Loyalist Nadine Doris dismissed the importance of by-elections, saying Margaret Thatcher had suffered similar setbacks before continuing to win in the 1980s. And Attorney General Suela Braverman attributed the medium-term defeats to a “dishonest election pact” between the Liberal Democrats and Labor.
But the former Brexit leader, Mr Johnson, Lord Frost, a very influential figure on the party’s right, said it was a “terrible night and we will lose if we don’t change things”.
And the leader of the Tories in Wales, Andrew RT Davis, said it should be “more challenging” for the prime minister to see that he could serve those who put him in office.
Former Justice Minister Sir Robert Buckland, who continues to support Mr Johnson’s leadership, said he had personally told the prime minister that he needed to “look in the mirror and do better” and that the Conservative Party was in favor of more than one person. “
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