LONDON — Boris Johnson survives — for now.
The British prime minister narrowly won a confidence vote among his own lawmakers Monday, leaving him damaged but still in power and his ruling Conservative Party bitterly divided over its once-talismanic leader who has become plagued by scandal.
Johnson, 57, secured the support of more than 50 percent of party lawmakers in a high-drama secret ballot in Parliament. The vote was triggered after more than 15 percent of Conservative members of Parliament, 54 MPs, submitted letters calling for him to go.
But while he has won a reprieve, the question that will now dominate Westminster is how long he can last.
The vote exposed the sheer level of anger within Johnson’s party. Like the rest of the country, many Tories are angry at revelations that members of his government held a string of illicit, boozy parties during Covid-19 lockdowns — violating the very restrictions that they ordered the rest of the country to obey.
The anger has been compounded because Johnson, who critics point out has a record of saying things that turn out not to be true, repeatedly denied that such parties ever happened.
Under Conservative Party rules, Johnson is now technically safe from challenge for another year. But those rules can and have been changed in the past. And even in victory, he is gravely politically wounded, perhaps mortally so.
Two of his predecessors, Theresa May in 2019 and Margaret Thatcher in 1990, won confidence votes but were forced to resign after those ballots exposed a level of internal opposition that made their positions untenable.
Another, then-Prime Minister John Major, won his vote in 1995 only to be crushed by the opposition Labour Party in a landslide two years later.
Within the party, the moves against Johnson seem to have been motivated largely by raw electoral calculus.
Johnson’s approval ratings have crashed amid the ‘partygate’ scandal, and current polling would see dozens of Conservative lawmakers lose their seats under his leadership. The party is widely expected to lose two seats in a pair of votes later this month.
Nationwide anger has only risen after the government’s own investigation found a widespread culture of alcohol-fueled parties at No. 10 Downing St. — the government’s central place of work, as well as the prime minister’s residence — including punch-ups and vomit splattered on the walls.
At one event, staff left the building after 4 a.m., just hours before the queen was forced to sit alone at the funeral of her husband, Prince Philip, because of Covid restrictions.
A Metropolitan Police investigation issued 126 fines to 83 people, including Johnson and his wife. It made him the first sitting British prime minister found to have broken the law.
The nationwide anger became even more palpable after Johnson and his wife, Carrie, were booed by crowds outside St. Paul’s Cathedral last week as they arrived for a Platinum Jubilee event.
It’s not just partygate that’s fomented anger, however.
Johnson had already faced sleaze allegations, while his government has faced criticism over plans to override its own Brexit deal in relation to Northern Ireland, attempts to centralize power away from Parliament, and its policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda.
The prime minister has seen his already low popularity ratings plummet, and must now confront the growing discontent from across his party.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
