After 148 Conservative MPs voted against him, the prime minister attempted to rally Cabinet colleagues by stating that it was time to “put a line under the topics that our opponents want to discuss.”
Boris Johnson attempted to put an end to a brutal confidence vote by pushing Cabinet colleagues to concentrate on tax cuts and parity.
By a vote of 211 to 148, Tory MPs backed the prime minister, prompting allies to declare it’s time to move on from issues about his leadership and critics to insist he should resign due to the magnitude of the mutiny.
It was a greater revolt against the prime minister than his predecessor Theresa May endured in 2018, months before she was ultimately deposed.
After months of humiliating reports about parties in Downing Street during the COVID-19 outbreak and the spectacle of Mr. Johnson being jeered at a Jubilee thanksgiving service, the vote on Monday was held.
However, before opening Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, the prime minister stated, “We can now draw a line under the topics that our opponents wish to discuss.”
Later, during an event commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, Mr. Johnson stated that now that “things are a bit quieter in Westminster,” he may be able to visit the Falkland Islands for the first time.
“Things appear to be reasonably tranquil,” he continued.
During the Cabinet meeting, Mr. Johnson discussed “delivering tax cuts,” reducing business and government costs, the “leveling up” agenda to address regional inequality, steps to address the cost of living increase, and the improvement of public services.
He told ministers, “For the next few weeks, I’m going to encourage everyone to suggest ways that we can cut expenses, drive change, and ensure that we recognize that, ultimately, individuals have the best sense of how to spend their own money, not the government or the state.
“This is our most basic, conservative impulse.”
Technically, the Prime Minister is now safe from his MPs for another year, as party rules prohibit another vote of confidence during that time.
Tobias Ellwood, a rebel, stated that he believed the 1922 committee of backbench Tories was considering modifying these regulations.
Two by-elections scheduled for June 23 in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Tiverton and Honiton, Devon, might deal the prime minister a further blow to his authority.
Lord Hague, a former leader of the Conservative Party, argued in an essay for The Times that Mr. Johnson’s premiership has been severely damaged.
He stated that he would have deemed it untenable if more than a third of MPs had voted against his leadership.
John Baron, a backbencher who has expressed concern over the prime minister’s repeated denials of knowledge of lockdown rule-breaking, stated that resigning now would be the “honorable thing” to do.
However, Mr. Johnson received support from colleagues, including his deputy Dominic Raab, who told Sky News that the prime minister was not discouraged by the vote and now has “renewed enthusiasm” to implement his ideas.
Liz Truss, who was frequently mentioned as a potential leader, dispelled rumors about her future ambitions by stating that she was “100 percent focused” on her role as foreign secretary.
Ms. Truss told reporters, “It is time to draw a line, move forward, and concentrate on what the people want us to discuss: housing, childcare, and delivering reduced taxes.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told the Financial Times that he was “thrilled” that Boris Johnson had survived the vote, calling him a “genuine friend” of the troubled nation.
Lord Frost, the former minister for Brexit, stated that the magnitude of the vote was indicative of “the major problem… that we are providing an economic policy that will not generate success and wealth.”
He demanded the reversal of previously planned increases in National Insurance and corporate tax.
The Liberal Democrats are pressing for a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons, stating that “any Conservative MP with a shred of decency must support our motion,” however no date has been set.
In the meantime, Labour won a non-binding parliamentary vote urging the government to accept recommendations from the Committee on Standards in Public Life, a sleaze watchdog tasked with improving standards in Westminster. Conservative MPs abstained.
The reforms would include empowering the ethical adviser to the prime minister, Lord Geidt, to conduct his inquiries into violations of the ministerial code.
