Wounded Johnson vows to ‘get on with the job’ as leadership questions continue
The Prime Minister insisted he would focus on the issues that matter to voters after surviving a bruising confidence vote on his leadership.
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson will use a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday in an attempt to show “we are going to get on with the job” after he was left badly wounded by a revolt against his leadership.
The Prime Minister survived a confidence vote on Monday night, but 148 of his own MPs declared they had no faith in his ability to lead the party.
Allies have rallied round Mr Johnson, but former Tory leader Lord Hague said “the damage done to his premiership is severe” and he should quit rather than prolong the agony.
Tory MPs voted by 211 to 148 in support of the Prime Minister, but the scale of the opposition was greater than that seen in 2018 when Theresa May faced a confidence vote. She was ultimately forced out within months.
Mr Johnson claims the vote allows him to draw a line under the question of his leadership despite 41% of his MPs having no confidence in him.
Not only is the writing on the wall but it is chiselled in stone and will not wash away
As he prepared for a Cabinet meeting in No 10, Mr Johnson said: “This is a Government that delivers on what the people of this country care about most.
“We have pledged £37 billion to support households with their finances, made our communities safer through hiring 13,500 more police officers, and tackled the Covid backlogs in the NHS by opening nearly 100 Community Diagnostic Centres so people can access care closer to home.
“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.”
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab told LBC radio: “I think we draw a line in the sand after this vote, it was clearly and decisively won.
“We move forward to deliver for the people of the country and that is the way we do the right thing by our constituents.”
Mr Johnson’s authority faces further blows with tricky by-elections on June 23 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Tiverton and Honiton in Devon.
But Mr Raab sought to play down the impact of potential losses in the two Tory-held seats, claiming “governments of the day often lose by-elections to go on to win them at a general election”.
Lord Hague, writing in The Times, said he would have regarded a situation where more than a third of MPs voted against his leadership “untenable”.
“If, with all the power of the party leadership, all the years of acquaintance with MPs, all the knowledge they have of your abilities and plans, you still cannot crush a vote of no confidence by a commanding margin, then not only is the writing on the wall but it is chiselled in stone and will not wash away,” he said.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, a prominent critic of the Prime Minister, said: “Lord Hague is right. The residual concerns from across the party will continue to remain.”
He said Mr Johnson “should now leave with honour and residual affection for what he has achieved”.
Tobias Ellwood, chairman of the Commons Defence Committee and another Tory MP who has called for Mr Johnson to quit, suggested the Prime Minister would only survive for “a matter of months”.
He told Sky News there was now “a lot of work to be done: a reshuffle is now required – bring in fresh talent, and actually start to focus on the big issues, make the Cabinet construct actually work”.
Labour will seek to heap further pressure on Mr Johnson by asking MPs to vote on Tuesday to adopt a package of recommendations put forward by a sleaze watchdog aimed at improving standards in Westminster.
The recommendations from the Committee on Standards in Public Life in a report include giving Mr Johnson’s ethics adviser Lord Geidt the power to “initiate investigations into breaches of the ministerial code”.
The Prime Minister previously said he was putting in place an “enhanced process” for Lord Geidt to initiate his own investigations into possible breaches, but that he would still need Mr Johnson’s consent before proceeding.
The chairman of the standards watchdog, Lord Evans of Weardale, said the change, while an improvement on the previous position, meant the adviser was still not “sufficiently independent”.
Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said: “Labour is urging MPs of all parties to support this independent, cross-party package of reforms to tackle decaying standards.
“If they fail to back this move to clean up politics, it is they who will have to look their constituents in the eye.”
The Liberal Democrats are pushing for a Commons confidence vote in the Prime Minister as a whole after Mr Johnson survived the Tory process, although there is no date fixed for the move and it is unlikely to be successful.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said: “Every Conservative MP who has a shred of decency must back our motion and finally give Johnson the sack.”