Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson addresses his cabinet during their weekly cabinet meeting at Downing Street in London, Tuesday, June 7, 2022.
A defiant British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is holding his first cabinet meeting on Tuesday after a tense day of political intrigue, which ended in a narrow margin in his party’s members’ no-confidence ballots as a large part of their victory. Happened. MPs voted against him as leader. Johnson is rallying his cabinet ministers, who largely publicly endorsed him, and even angry backbench members of parliament for leading a rebellion behind his leadership for the greater good of the country. called.
The message from Downing Street was that Johnson would call on his ministers to move forward on the government’s priorities of easing financial pressure on families, making access to National Health Service (NHS) care faster and easier, and making streets safer. “This is a government that cares most about the people of this country,” Johnson, 57, said in a statement from Downing Street on Tuesday.
“We have pledged £37 billion to support households with our finances, make our communities safer through the hiring of 13,500 more police officers, and fight the COVID backlog in the NHS by opening nearly 100 community diagnostics centres. So that people can take care closer to home.” Johnson said. “Today, I pledge to continue working on these priorities. We are on the side of hard-working British people, and we will continue to work,” he said.
However, the Party Gate scandal of parties breaking COVID law on Downing Street under Johnson’s watch is not expected to go away easily as the catalyst behind Monday’s vote. There is a widespread feeling that although he won the confidence of 59 percent of his lawmakers, the scale of the rebellion by 148 lawmakers left Johnson politically wounded. Former Conservative Party leader William Hague wrote in The Times: “It would not be sustainable for Johnson to continue to lead the party in the face of such a rebellion.”
“Any leader who wins a vote on their leadership has that moment of relief that they are technically saved and the immediate belief that they live to fight another day. A victory is a victory, A small gap is certainly enough in a tough fight.” He said, “This is true of being elected an MP or becoming a leader of a party for the first time, with all opportunities to unite disappointed. Voters around you or defeated candidates. But this is not valid for a sitting leader.”
In another brewing development, the powerful 1922 committee of Tory MPs to choose the party leader is believed to be considering a rule change, so Johnson faces another leadership challenge under existing norms. Not safe for a year. Tobias Ellwood, an MP who voted against the prime minister in Monday’s vote, said he understands the head of the committee is now considering changing the rules. Elwood indicated, “the system could be adjusted, meaning the current rule of allowing one prime minister for a full year would be changed.”
“That number is up to 10 [Downing Street] And told the prime minister to act on his word that he was going to turn things around and show that we have a chance of winning the general election.” The scale of Monday’s rebellion undoubtedly shook Johnson, who gave a thumping majority. Conservative Party in the December 2019 general election.
But two years later, his credibility has been dented to such an extent that an internal 758-word memo titled ‘Party Leadership’ was echoed by Tory WhatsApp groups ahead of the trust vote. The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that the memo appeared to sum up the sentiments of party backbenchers, who fear their vote winner is increasingly turning into a vote loser. “Boris Johnson is no longer an electoral asset and, if left in office, would lead the party to a major defeat in 2024,” it read. It is believed that scathing report cards on Johnson’s failures, including Partygate and its “denial” in the House of Commons, helped influence many rebels who were on the fence to vote against Johnson.
Read also | UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson wins Tory party’s no-confidence vote over Partygate scandal
Read also | UK PM Boris Johnson to face no-confidence vote over Partygate scandal