The prime minister kept his job but with a civil war looming, Conservatives don’t even seem to know what their party is for
What is the point of the Conservative party? That’s not quite how the question was worded on Monday night’s secret ballot of Tory MPs, but it describes the result. Boris Johnson survived this confidence vote but just 59% of his MPs backed him: fewer than supported Theresa May, back when Johnson was the one trying to push her off a cliff. Such anaemic support must embolden rebels to keep chipping away, whether via ministerial resignations, strategic revolts over legislation, or moving to scrap the rule that theoretically prevents another such vote within the year. A miserable, hog-tied future beckons.
The back-of-a-fag-packet plan for renewal Johnson brandished last minute – promising to sell off housing association properties and axe civil servants – plus his insistence when quizzed on lockdown parties that “I’d do it again” seem only to have hardened resolve.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
