London: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a confidence vote yesterday but a large rebellion in his Conservative Party over the so-called “partygate” scandal dealt a blow to his authority and leaves him with a struggle to win back support. In all, 211 Tory MPs voted they had confidence in the Prime Minister Johnson’s leadership while 148 voted against him. The British Prime Minister won 59 percent of the vote, meaning he is now immune from a Conservative leadership challenge for a year.
The vote share in support of Prime Minister Johnson was lower than the 63 percent received by former Prime Minister Theresa May when she won a party confidence vote in 2018, before resigning six months later over a Brexit deadlock.
Mr Johnson described his confidence vote win as “decisive”.
The result sees Prime Minister Johnson remain in office, but critics said, the scale of the rebellion against him showed his authority had been weakened, with some calling on him to resign.
A vote of confidence in Mr Johnson, who scored a sweeping election victory in 2019, was triggered amid public anger at drink-fuelled lockdown parties in and near Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some Tory MPs have also expressed dissent over tax rises, the government’s response to rising living costs and its policy direction.