Boris Johnson used a cabinet meeting on Tuesday to urge ministers to move from the very damaging censorship vote in which 41 per cent of Conservative MPs voted to remove him and refocus on practical issues.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, addressed the cabinet to address the NHS delays and improve health services. Meanwhile, the prime minister told cabinet ministers to find more departmental savings to move spending to households.
Johnson’s allies believe he is also planning a ministerial reshuffle to reward those who have remained loyal to him, while punishing those who have not. But Downing Street said Tuesday that “there were no plans” for a remodel.
Johnson won the Conservative MPs’ censorship vote by 211 to 148 on Monday and told the cabinet the result had been “conclusive and decisive”.
But he faced sad newspaper headlines. The Daily Telegraph, Johnson’s former businessman, headlined its front page with the headline: “Empty Victory Destroys Conservatives,” while Lord William Hague, one of his predecessors as party leader, used a column in the Times to ask the Prime Minister to resign. .
Johnson received a boost on Tuesday morning when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told a conference at the Financial Times global boardroom that his survival was “great news,” adding: “I’m glad that we have not lost a very important ally. ”
The Prime Minister and his allies tried to portray the outcome as a time when the party could bury its differences. But the vote highlighted resentment and a break with conservative discipline.
Johnson’s victory was by a narrow margin over that achieved by his predecessor Theresa May in a censorship vote in 2018; she was forced to resign as prime minister six months later.
The biggest threat to Johnson now would be a series of resignations of ministers who no longer want to serve in his government, although so far there has been no indication of this.
Tobias Ellwood, the Conservative chairman of the House of Commons select committee and Johnson’s critic, said Monday: “The days of honorable resignation are gone.”
Dominic Raab, Deputy Prime Minister, told the BBC he had no intention of resigning. “I will always put the good of the country first,” he said, adding that the best would have been done if Johnson had remained in office.
He said he was confident the Conservatives could win the 80-seat majority Johnson won in the 2019 general election if the party came together.
But some Conservatives believe Monday’s vote is the beginning of a long drop in office for Johnson, who faces multiple imminent challenges, including a high-inflation fall and a possible recession.
Hague, a former Secretary of State, wrote to The Times that the votes cast against Johnson’s leadership “show a greater level of rejection than any Conservative leader has endured and survived.” He called on the Prime Minister to “come out again in a way that saves these agonies and uncertainties for the party and the country.”
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Johnson is also facing parliamentary scrutiny over whether he lied to the Commons about the party scandal: meetings on Downing Street during Covid restrictions while banning social events, as well as two treacherous by-elections. Conservatives are defending their seats in Wakefield, and Tiverton and Honiton on June 23, and opinion polls have shown they are lagging behind the opposition in both.
“The scale of the vote against the Prime Minister tonight is clear evidence that he no longer enjoys the full confidence of the parliamentary party and should consider his position,” said Julian Sturdy, a Conservative MP.
Under current party rules, Johnson cannot face another 12-month censorship vote, but high-level Conservatives have said the rules could change with immediate effect.
Some Conservatives believe Johnson will never resign, regardless of the electoral damage he may be causing. “It’s an existential threat to the Conservative Party,” a Conservative MP said.
A test of Johnson’s authority could soon come, with the forthcoming publication of a draft piece of legislation to break parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, part of the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU. of 2020.
Some Conservatives have already warned Johnson not to break an international treaty. If it moves forward with the legislation, the EU has said it will retaliate by excluding British scientists from the € 95 billion Horizon research project.