UK’s PM Boris Johnson addresses his party’s lawmakers before confidence vote
- Johnson faces a Conservative Party confidence vote on Monday evening UK time, following a series of scandals
- A majority of Conservative Members of Parliament would have to vote against the Prime Minister for him to be removed
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been addressing Conservative MPs in Westminster before they take part in a confidence vote later on Monday, after a growing number of lawmakers in the governing party questioned the British leader’s flagging authority over the “partygate” scandal.
Johnson, appointed prime minister in 2019, is under growing pressure, unable to move on from a report that documented alcohol-fuelled parties at the heart of power when Britain was under strict lockdowns to tackle Covid-19.
In a searing attack on the once seemingly unassailable Johnson, Jesse Norman, a loyalist who served as a junior minister in the finance ministry between 2019 and 2021, said the prime minister staying in power insulted both the electorate and the party.
He is just one of several Conservative lawmakers who have voiced concern over whether Johnson, 57, has lost his authority to govern Britain, which is facing the risk of recession, rising prices and strike-inflicted travel chaos in the capital London.
“The threshold of 15 per cent of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded,” Graham Brady, chairman of the party’s 1922 Committee that represents rank-and-file Conservative lawmakers, wrote in a note.
Brady said a vote would be held between 6pm and 8pm (1am and 3am Hong Kong time) on Monday, with the result due to be announced at 9pm (4am in Hong Kong).
A spokesperson for Johnson’s Downing Street office said the vote was “a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities”.