UK Tories exploring ways to hold new confidence vote against Johnson
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Prime Minister Boris Johnson is still not off the hook, as the UK Tories are still looking to have him probed over his violations and quite possibly stripped of his position.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson could be up against a new confidence vote just six months from now after the leading Conservative committee started looking for ways to change the rules, Parliament member Tobias Ellwood said Tuesday.
Johnson had won the confidence motion with 211-148 votes on Monday night and retained his position, despite the anger over Downing Street's lockdown-breaking parties and overall discontent with his leadership.
The current party rules stipulate that a prime minister cannot face another vote for a year after the first vote was carried out.
"Methods can be made. The system can be adjusted to mean the current rule of allowing a prime minister an entire year would be changed," Ellwood told SkyNews, answering the question of whether the rules could be changed.
The 1922 Committee, the Torries' leading committee, Ellwood said, is already looking for ways to change the rules so that it could have Johnson against the ropes once again six months from now.
"It's up to Number 10 and the prime minister to act on his word that he's going to change things around and show that we have a chance of winning the general election," Ellwood added.
This comes after Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab urged earlier today the PM's opponents to "respect the results" of the vote and move on.
"We had the vote yesterday. It is not something that the government wanted, but it is something that those who were expressing those descending opinions felt was necessary... We have had this vote now. I think that it was the prerogative of those calling for it to have it. The prime minister won it clearly."
Raab clarified that Johnson won the vote with 59%, which is more that the support he received when he was elected as the leader of the Conservative Party.
Johnson has been under fire due to a series of leaks that showed that several social gatherings had taken place at his offices in light of the strict government Covid-19 lockdown throughout 2020 and 2021.
Johnson has been grappling with calls to resign after a series of leaks showed that several social gatherings were held at his offices throughout 2020 and 2021, flouting Covid-19 social distancing rules, which later became known as the Partygate scandal.
Johnson had repeatedly denied before the house that he or his staff had breached the strict lockdown his government had put in place, though fines issued last month have proven his claims to be false. He did apologize for the scandal but remained adamant he never knowingly misled parliament and vowed to press on with other issues, including the war in Ukraine.
