Boris Johnson has insisted he is “certainly not interested in snap elections” after he survived a vote of confidence in his leadership. The Prime Minister said the Government can now “move on” following what he claimed was a “convincing” and “decisive” result.
The PM's authority was dealt a significant blow by Monday's confidence vote, which saw Tory MPs voting by 211 to 148 in support of him. When Theresa May faced a confidence vote in 2018 she secured the support of 63% of her MPs – but was still forced out within six months.
Mr Johnson saw 41% of his MPs vote against him, a worse result than Mrs May. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said a “divided” Conservative Party is “propping up” Boris Johnson after the vote.
He said on Twitter: “The choice is clearer than ever before: Divided Tories propping up Boris Johnson with no plan to tackle the issues you are facing. Or a united Labour Party with a plan to fix the cost-of-living crisis and restore trust in politics. Labour will get Britain back on track.”
Leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Ed Davey said Boris Johnson is a “failing Prime Minister” who “cannot be propped up any longer”. He tweeted: “Every Conservative MP who cares about integrity and decency must do the right thing, resign the whip and sit as an independent. For the sake of our country, this failing Prime Minister cannot be propped up any longer.”
Speaking to journalists, Mr Johnson described the results of a confidence vote in his leadership as a “very good result”. He said: "I think this is a very good result for politics and for the country.”
He added it was “a convincing result, a decisive result, and what it means is that as a Government we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people”. Asked how it compared to past confidence votes in Conservative prime ministers, he added: “I have got a far bigger mandate from my own parliamentary colleagues than I had in 2019.”
