Confidence vote 1) A wounded PM survives confidence vote
“Boris Johnson lost the support of more than four in ten of his MPs last night as he narrowly survived a confidence vote in his leadership. The prime minister saw off an attempt to remove him from office by 63 votes after 148 MPs defied his warnings that voting against him would gift Labour the next election. The vote exposed deep rifts within the Conservative Party that will pose a continuing threat to Johnson’s authority as he tries to lead the party into the next election. The margin of his victory is less than that granted to Theresa May in January 2019. She was ousted within seven months of her confidence vote. Johnson was opposed by the same proportion of his MPs as Margaret Thatcher in 1990. She resigned two days later after her cabinet turned on her…the result was worse than anticipated by the whips, who had hoped to keep the number voting against Johnson to about 100.” – The Times
- Hollow confidence vote victory tears Tories apart – Daily Telegraph
- Weakened Johnson scrapes through after damaging confidence vote – FT
- Allies took their time in campaign to save Big Dog – The Times
- Scottish Tories still hope for a hasty retreat – Daily Telegraph
- Why PM is still not safe – Daily Telegraph
- PM is safe for now – but the vote is hardly a ringing endorsement – Guardian
- Dead man walking? Times commentators give their verdicts – The Times
- Sunak backs PM and denies claims about timing of cost of living aid – FT
- Tory rebels vow to keep trying to topple Johnson – Guardian
- Fear, loathing and, of course, grudges galore as the Tory tribes fight their very own culture war – The Times
- Carrie Johnson and hard times at No 10 – The Times
Comment
- Pyrrhic victory – Editorial, The Times
- PM left badly wounded – Editorial, Daily Telegraph
- The vultures are circling – Camilla Tominey, Daily Telegraph
- Johnson has survived, but this is still a historic turning point – Janet Daley, Daily Telegraph
- As bad a result as a victory can be – Robert Shrimsley, FT
- Tragedy of Johnson’s premiership as it has descended into farce – Sherelle Jacobs, Daily Telegraph
>Today:
- ToryDiary: Andrew Gimson’s Commons sketch: Politics is a blood sport and the Prime Minister has been knifed
- Leadership ballot result. 211 Conservative MPs have confidence in the Prime Minister. And 148 do not.
>Yesterday:
MPs ETC: Live Blog: 47 MPs have declared their opposition to Johnson. 158 have declared their support.
Confidence vote 2) PM defiant as he appeals to ‘hard working Britons to let him get on with the job’
“Boris Johnson today refused to quit No 10 and was backed by his cabinet as he pledged to ‘deliver on what the people of this country care about most’. No 10 has fought back and revealed that Mr Johnson will meet with his cabinet this morning where he will set out his vision for the coming weeks, including new policies to help reduce the costs of childcare and to help more people buy their own homes. There are also growing rumours of a reshuffle amid the threat of a ministerial resignations. ‘This is a government that delivers on what the people of this country care about most,’ the Prime Minister said, adding: ‘Today, I pledge to continue delivering on these priorities. We are on the side of hard-working British people, and we are going to get on with the job.’ – Daily Mail
- I’m a survivor, Johnson breaks cover – The Sun
- Johnson’s loyalists savage his Tory critics – The Times
- Serial rebels could be kicked out of the party – Daily Mail
>Today:
>Yesterday:
- ToryDiary: Johnson as Ziggy. He took it all too far, but boy could he play guitar.
- MPs ETC: The Prime Minister’s letter to MPs – “Tonight we have a great prize within our grasp”
- Video: WATCH: Brady – “The threshold of 15 per cent has been passed”
Confidence vote 3) How day of Tory infighting played out
“As MPs met in small packs to plot in the atrium of Portcullis House over breakfast coffee, the mood among Boris Johnson’s loyalists was upbeat. There were confident predictions that the prime minister could keep the rebel numbers below 100. By the time the prime minister left the 1922 Committee, the new line was that one vote was enough. It was a measure of how a seemingly chaotic, rudderless rebel operation had managed to sow enough doubt in the minds of their colleagues – with a counter-bid that relied on raw numbers and aimed to demonstrate Johnson was an electoral liability. The prime minister’s number crunchers got him over the line – but they were way wide of the mark in their prediction. The result is almost the worst possible.” – Guardian
- PM said he would ‘do it again’ – Daily Telegraph
- Glum and distracted, Johnson tries to bounce back from boos – Guardian
- The inside story of Johnson’s longest day – Daily Mail
- Inside dramatic story of how no confidence vote was sprung on Johnson – The Sun
- How the knives came out for PM – Daily Telegraph
Confidence vote 4) William Hague: Johnson should look for an honourable exit
“There are two types of rebellions against party leaderships. One is the work of an organised faction or rival candidate for leader, launching a bid to dislodge the incumbent at a time of their choosing. When Michael Heseltine moved against Margaret Thatcher in 1990 it was a rebellion of this kind, as was the attempt by hardline Brexiteers to dislodge Theresa May in 2018. The other type is more disparate, less organised but more spontaneous: a wider loss of faith that eventually brings on a crisis, but at a time no single individual or grouping chose. The only parallel in recent Conservative Party history is the toppling of Iain Duncan Smith in 2003. The calling of a confidence vote in Boris Johnson obviously falls into the latter category. While I never faced a vote of no confidence in my four years as opposition leader, I would have regarded my position as completely untenable if more than a third of my MPs had ever voted against me.” – The Times
Confidence vote 5) Over half of ConHome panel wanted Johnson to lose confidence vote
“More than half of a panel of ConservativeHome readers wanted their MP to oust Boris Johnson in tonight’s no-confidence vote. In a snap poll of the for the influential Tory grassroots website, 55 per cent want their MPs to vote against Johnson. Last month, in the wake of civil servant Sue Gray’s report into Partygate, as well as the government’s emergency measures to combat the cost-of-living crisis, that figure was 41 per cent. By contrast, the same percentage of those polled now believe “Conservative MPs should not vote to remove Johnson as Party leader” – down from 58 per cent in April. It comes after the PM ranked bottom in the publication’s annual Cabinet league table, sitting at a dismal -15 points and over 14 points behind second-lowest Ben Elliot, the party’s co-chairman. It seems as though the long Jubilee weekend has not helped the PM’s popularity among the party faithful. All eyes are on whether Tory MPs listen to their supporters’ concerns.” – Reaction
>Yesterday:
Confidence vote 6) John Curtice: History is little comfort for PM, despite his vote win
“The ballot occurred after a sharp decline in the Prime Minister’s popularity, in this instance primarily because of “Partygate”. Indeed, Mr Johnson’s latest poll ratings are worse than those endured by Mrs May when she was challenged. Opinium currently gives him a net approval rating of -29, Ipsos Mori a net satisfaction rating of -36 and YouGov a net favourability rating of as low as -45. The no confidence vote will not have come as a surprise to voters. Many were already aware that some of Mr Johnson’s colleagues had withdrawn their support for him. But victory will not necessarily help turn things around.” – Daily Telegraph
- Unhappy lessons for premiers who survive first blow – The Times
- Prime Minister could soon face another no-confidence vote, say 1922 committee insiders – New Statesman
Confidence vote 7) ‘Hunt is preparing for another leaders
hip bid’
“England expects every Tory MP to do their duty,” a leading supporter of Jeremy Hunt said in the atrium of Portcullis House hours before Conservatives voted on Boris Johnson’s future. The message was clear: Conservative MPs who are unhappy with Mr Johnson’s premiership had to vote against the Tory leader in Monday’s confidence vote. It came just minutes after Mr Hunt himself had issued a statement, making clear that he would be voting against his rival who trounced him by two votes to one in the 2019 leadership election. Mr Hunt has been treading a narrow line for months over his leadership ambitions, notably not ruling out another run at the top job in January. On Monday, Mr Hunt, his team and MP supporters repeatedly stressed that he was not running for the leadership, well aware that many in the party’s supporter base might not thank him.” – Daily Telegraph
- Who will replace Johnson and be the next prime minister? – The Times
Comment
- Where are all the leaders? Suzanne Moore, Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday:
Columnists: Peter Franklin: Five tests for the next Prime Minister
ToryDiary: Tory leadership elections. A brief history.
Confidence vote 8) Dominic Raab: Conservative civil war would be a gift to Labour
Over the past three years this Prime Minister has faced a series of unprecedented challenges — in Brexit, Covid-19, war in Europe and the global cost-of-living squeeze. Most leaders would have found them individually daunting, and collectively overwhelming. Not Boris Johnson. Time and time again he has got the big calls right — and proved the doubters wrong. Brexit — the largest democratic vote in our history — looked like a lost cause this time three years ago. Boris became PM a month later, and within five months he got Brexit done, against howls of protest and concerted blocking tactics in Parliament. Some would like to see a destructive, divisive and distracting Conservative civil war up at Westminster. It would also be a gift to Labour — giving them the best possible chance at the next election.” – The Sun
Sunak says windfall tax may be extended to electricity giants
“The government is “urgently” exploring a windfall tax on electricity companies within weeks, Rishi Sunak has said, extending the Treasury’s £5 billion energy tax raid to cushion the cost of living blow for struggling households. The chancellor told MPs on the Treasury committee that electricity companies were racking up “extraordinary profits” on the back of a global oil and gas price surge that has driven up UK household bills by more than 50 per cent this year. “We are working urgently with the industry to understand the scale of what those [profits] might be and the best way to address that,” Sunak said. He has already announced a windfall tax of 65 per cent on North Sea oil and gas company profits, up from 40 per cent, that will raise an additional £5 billion in the next 12 months.” – The Times
Macron pledges common touch (again)
“President Macron has promised France will stop ordering reforms from on high as his centrist government faces a growing threat from the radical left in parliamentary elections that start on Sunday. After weeks of public absence since his re-election in April, Macron threw himself over the weekend into a campaign that has turned into a duel with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 70, the charismatic hard left-winger who is fighting to win a parliamentary majority and force Macron to appoint him prime minister. Mélenchon’s alliance of anti-capitalists, Socialists, Greens and Communists, which he patched together after taking third place in the presidential election, stands little chance of winning power but it is in the running in the election and could rob the president’s centrist bloc, Ensemble, of the majority it needs to govern.” – The Times
News in Brief
- The Government’s mountain of issues won’t disappear with Johnson’s departure – Mark Wallace, the i
- Can PM bounce back? – Katy Balls, The Spectator
- If there is a Tory leadership contest, make it short and sharp – Stephen Pollard, CapX
- The Conservatives are doomed whether or not Johnson survives – Martin Fletcher, New Statesman
- Should we have a four-day work week? – Kyle Lewis and Tim Worstall, 1828
- Scotland’s poor are left to die – Darren ‘Loki’ McGarvey, UnHerd