Johnson faces UK Tory leadership vote as party anger boils over

Bloomberg

Boris Johnson will face a leadership vote in his ruling Conservative Party, after a series of missteps and scandals became too much for scores of Tory Members of Parliament.
Senior Conservative MP Graham Brady said the threshold of at least 54 MPs — 15% of the Conservative total — has been met to trigger a confidence vote in Johnson, who became the first sitting prime minister found to have broken the law earlier this year.
Some MPs had requested holding off until after weekend celebrations marking Queen Elizabeth II’s 70 years on the throne. The secret ballot was expected to be held for two hours from 6 pm, with a result shortly afterward.
The Tory rebels need a majority of the party’s 359 MPs to win a vote, with any abstentions altering the math.
The number of MPs with government jobs may make it difficult for the rebels to win the vote, but even if he wins, Johnson could emerge fatally damaged.
Pressure on the British prime minister has been building for weeks over “partygate,” the media nickname for the illegal events in Downing Street during the pandemic for which Johnson received a police fine.
But discontent with Johnson’s leadership goes far beyond partygate for some MPs, who have been frustrated at being forced to defend controversial policies only for the government to be forced by public pressure into a U-turn.
A so-called windfall tax on energy firms has angered traditional fiscal conservatives, while others are angry that his plan to rip up the Brexit deal over Northern Ireland will see the Tories — who call themselves the party of law and order — breaking international law.
Former minister Jesse Norman published a letter to the prime minister excoriating Johnson and accusing him of “lacking a sense of mission.”
That so many MPs have lost confidence in him is a massive blow to Johnson, who led the Conservative Party to its biggest general election win in more than three decades in 2019. Still, Johnson made clear he plans to come out fighting.
“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,” a spokesperson for Johnson’s office said in a statement. The prime minister was expected to address rank-and-file Tory MPs at 4 pm to make his case.