British Conservatives are renowned for their lack of qualms when it comes to winning or keeping power. They did not hesitate to push their Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to resign in 1990, when she had won three consecutive general elections (which does not prevent them from continuing to venerate her as an unsurpassable figure). They also ended up ejecting Theresa May, in June 2019, when she sank in the polls, despite the efforts made by this pro-European to negotiate Brexit.
Will they in the same way “execute” Boris Johnson, whose authority and sincerity are undermined by “partygate”, while Scotland Yard is investigating twelve parties that took place in Downing Street during confinement, including one in his appartment ? Hesitation and doubts were palpable in recent days among the Tories. Just like strong divisions. According to internal party rules, it only takes 15% of the 359 Conservative MPs in the House of Commons (54 elected) to send a letter to Graham Brady, the chairman of an internal party club (the 1922 Committee), for a vote of confidence is organized within their college. If Mr Johnson loses it, he must resign.
It is impossible to know how many missives Mr. Brady has received: it is Westminster’s best-kept secret. While dozens of elected officials have harshly criticized Mr. Johnson in recent weeks, only eleven have publicly announced that they have taken the plunge, according to a count of the Spectator, Wednesday, February 2. Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the defense committee of the British Parliament, is part of the lot: “Boris Johnson got Brexit done, he ran an incredibly effective vaccine campaign, but it’s not the battles of the past that matter, we have to move forward,” he told Sky News on Wednesday. “I cannot reconcile the suffering and the sacrifices of the British made during the confinement with the attitude of those who work in Downing Street”, admitted Gary Streeter, another elected official who openly defected on Wednesday.
“No concerted movement”
But support for Mr Johnson is still evident, despite the damning conclusions of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s pre-report on ‘partygate’, which concluded on Monday at “serious failures of leadership”. During Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr. Johnson was more combative than ever and many Tories loudly endorsed his interventions. “His strategy is clear: he repeats that he is not going to resign and that ejecting him will be very complicated and very painful”, entrust to World David Gauke, ex-minister of justice for Theresa May, who lived through the ousting of the interior leader.
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