Boris Johnson is to face a vote of no confidence on Monday evening after the threshold of 54 letters from Conservative MPs seeking his departure was reached.
In a statement sent to Graham Brady, the chair of the 1922 Committee that represents backbench Tories, said the threshold of 15% of MPs seeking a confidence vote, numbering 54, had been reached.
“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 today, Monday 6 June,” it continued.
To stay in office, Johnson needs to win the support of at least 50% of all Tory MPs plus one, totalling 180. If he does win he is theoretically safe from such a challenge for a year – although the rules can be changed.
Brady would have told No 10 in advance of the announcement and liaised over the timing of any vote. The fact it is taking place so quickly is likely to be the choice of Downing Street, hopeful that disparate groups of rebels will be unable to coordinate or campaign.
A No 10 spokesperson said: “Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities.
“The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force.”
Tory MPs opposed to Johnson were confident they had breached the 54-letter mark but remain uncertain as to whether they would win a confidence vote. It is held in person but as a secret ballot.
Sajid Javid, the health secretary, sent out on Monday’s broadcast round for the government, pledged that Johnson would “stand and fight his corner” if he did face a confidence vote.
“If this threshold of 54 letters is reached there will be a confidence vote and in that case there should be. There may well be one,” Javid told Sky News before confirmation of the vote. “If there is, the prime minister will stand and fight his corner with a very, very strong case. So let’s just wait and see what happens.”
Just before the vote was announced, another former minister, Jesse Norman, released a condemnatory letter saying he had also sent a letter.
Johnson had “presided over a culture of casual law-breaking at 10 Downing Street in relation to Covid”, said Norman, a former Treasury minister. For Johnson to describe himself as vindicated by last week’s Sue Gray report was “grotesque”, he added.
Breaching Northern Ireland protocol “would be economically very damaging, politically foolhardy and almost certainly illegal”, Norman wrote, while the policy of deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda policy was “ugly, likely to be counterproductive, and of doubtful illegality”.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am
In the week and a half since the Gray report into No 10 parties was published, many Conservative MPs moved from not expecting a confidence vote against Johnson until the aftermath of two crucial byelections on 23 June, at the earliest, to becoming almost certain one would be held this week.
In the previous such vote, in December 2018, Theresa May won by 200 votes to 117, but having more than a third of her MPs oppose her forced May to set a timetable for her departure only five months later.
