UK’s Johnson to face confidence vote

London, Jun 6 (EFE).- The United Kingdom’s prime minister Boris Johnson will on Monday face a confidence vote after enough members of his Conservative Party filed a letter calling for the measure.

Sir Graham Brady, the head of the 1922 Committee, which groups together Conservative lawmakers not on the government payroll, announced early Monday that the threshold to trigger the vote had been reached.

“The threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a confidence vote in the prime minister has been passed, therefore a vote of confidence will take place within the rules of the 1922 Committee,” he said in a televised statement.

He added that the vote would take place between 6-8pm local time on Monday and that the results would be made public “shortly thereafter.”

The threshold to trigger a confidence vote is 15%, meaning that at least 54 Conservative members of parliament submitted a letter to Brady.

To survive the vote, Johnson will need the backing of 50% of his party plus an extra ballot to tip the balance. He would be immune from a repeat measure for one year.

His predecessor Theresa May survived a confidence vote in 2018 when Tory MPs rebelled against her Brexit strategy.

Johnson’s popularity in the party — and in the eyes of the public — has been soured by scandal.

A recent investigation into what the UK media has come to term ‘partygate’ found a culture of illegal and sometimes drunken social gatherings had taken root in Downing Street when the rest of the country was forced to obey strict Covid-19 restrictions.

Johnson was fined for his attendance at one such gathering.

Although the confidence vote on Monday serves another dramatic twist in Johnson’s tenure, the PM may feel confident of his survival thanks to the number of loyal Tories whose salaries depend on the government. EFE

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