On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson met with his Cabinet to try to repair his shattered authority after surviving a no-confidence vote that left him badly wounded.
After Conservative Party MPs voted 211 to 148 to approve him as a leader, Johnson promised to “get on with the job” and focus on “what matters to the British people” — defined as the economy, health care, and crime.
In Monday’s secret ballot, Johnson needed the support of 180 of the 359 Conservative lawmakers to stay in office. He gained more than that, but the uprising was larger than some of his fans had predicted, despite the fact that he termed the victory as “convincing.” Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, received a smaller majority in a no-confidence vote in 2018. Six months later, she was compelled to quit.
Johnson is now exempt from further challenges for a year under party rules. However, prior prime ministers who faced no-confidence votes, such as May and Margaret Thatcher, suffered irreversible damage.
The uprising revealed deep Conservative differences less than three years after Johnson led the party to its most significant electoral triumph in decades. The majority of British publications were unanimous in their assessment that it was bad news for Johnson. “Hollow win splits Tories apart,” the Conservative-leaning Daily Telegraph declared, while the left-leaning Daily Mirror bluntly stated, “Party’s over, Boris.”
The vote came after months of simmering dissatisfaction with the prime minister’s ethics and judgment, which stemmed from disclosures of lawbreaking parties in the prime minister’s office during the coronavirus pandemic.
“While Johnson has survived the night,” former Conservative leader William Hague said, “the damage done to his premiership is grave,” and he should resign.
“Words have been spoken that cannot be taken back, reports have been published that cannot be undone, and votes have been cast that demonstrate a deeper level of rejection than any Tory leader has ever experienced or survived,” Hague wrote in the Times of London.
