Boris Johnson will be submitted Monday evening June 6 to a motion of no confidence from his party. If he is disowned, the prime minister, at the heart of “partygate”, a scandal for parties organized at 10 Downing Street during a period of health restrictions, will lose his post.
“The threshold of 15% of parliamentarians asking for a vote of confidence from the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded”announced in a press release Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee responsible for internal organizational matters.
The vote will take place between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. local time (7 p.m. and 9 p.m. in Paris) barely twenty-four hours after the end of the jubilee for the 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II. “The votes will be counted immediately afterwards. An announcement will be made at a time to be announced later.added Graham Brady.
Boris Johnson’s spokesperson reacted in a statement, saying that this vote “offers an opportunity to put an end to months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on by responding to the priorities of the people”.
“The Prime Minister welcomes the opportunity to present his case to MPs and will remind them that there is no more formidable political force than when they are united and focused on the issues that matter to voters. . »
A damning report
For months, criticism against Boris Johnson has increased in his camp under the effect of the report made by Sue Gray on the “partygate”. With this report, this senior official is immersed in the parties organized in Downing Street during the confinements, synonymous with heavy sacrifices for the British. She details a series of very alcoholic pots with altercations, music, leaving through backdoors in the early morning and disrespect for security or maintenance agents. Boris Johnson, himself subject to a fine – unheard of for a prime minister in office – said to assume “full responsibility for everything that happened” but felt obliged ” Continue “ his work.
The scandal shattered Boris Johnson’s long-stifled popularity, leading to heavy setbacks for the Tories in a local election in early May. He maintained his position by notably highlighting his leading role in the Western response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
No obvious successor stands out
If he is defeated by a motion of no confidence, an internal election will be held within the party to designate a new leader. If he survives there, he cannot be dislodged for a year. It would not be out of business since a parliamentary inquiry must now determine, by the fall, if he lied to Parliament, which could push him to resign.
Long considered a machine for winning elections, Boris Johnson, Brexit champion, looks more and more like a foil after the “partygate” but also in a context of historic fall in the purchasing power of the British.
A recent survey by the YouGov institute suggests that in the event of current legislative elections, the Conservatives, in power for twelve years, would lose almost all of the constituencies in the popular regions seized from Labor in 2019, even that of Boris Johnson in the suburbs of London. On the other hand, no obvious successor stands out, enough to encourage some elected officials to temporize before embarking on an internal election.
