By Boris Johnson survives confidence vote, but is this the beginning of the end?
Last night it was announced that Boris Johnson will be holding onto his seat as prime minister for a bit longer as the majority of his party voted in favour of him staying.
But, with a majority of just 41 MPs, can the prime minister hold out for much longer?
Out of the 359 MPs that voted, 211 voted for their leader, while 148 voted against.
Although the threshold of 180 votes against the MP wasn’t hit, the number of rebels was much higher than predicted.
Mr Johnson may have won the confidence of 59% of his MPs but the scale of the rebellion has left him politically damaged.
His critics noted that his predecessor Theresa May secured the support of 63% of her MPs when she faced her own confidence vote but was still forced out of office six months later.
The typical rule following a confidence vote is that one cannot be triggered for another year, but his could also be about to change.
Tobias Ellwood, who voted against the prime minister, said he understands the heads of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs are looking at altering the rules so the leader of the Tory party could face another confidence vote within a year.
He told Sky News that another vote could happen within six months, stating: “I understand that’s what the 1922 Committee are looking at, deliberately for this reason.
“Because if we’re going to have that stay of execution, we are now going to recognise the democratic outcome and support the prime minister then let’s give the prime minister time to improve.
“But, methods can be made, the system can be adjusted to mean the current rule of allowing a prime minister an entire year would be changed.”
He added that he would “see us going down that route” and would “support it being introduced” but at the moment he supports the democratic outcome of the vote.
“It’s up to Number 10 and the prime minister to act on his word that he’s going to change things around and show that we have a chance of winning the general election,” Mr Ellwood said.
Mr Johnson will face his senior ministers at a cabinet meeting later today, in which he is expected to rally the troops and divert all public and political attention away from the vote.
