No confidence vote poll: Nearly half of Tory members want Boris Johnson removed
Nearly half of the Conservative party’s membership want Boris Johnson removed as leader, according to one poll, with the result of the no confidence vote set to be announced at 9pm.
A snap poll by YouGov found 42 per cent of Conservative members wanted Johnson gone, with 53 per cent saying he should stay.
Another snap poll by Conservative Home found that 55 per cent of members want to remove the PM.
Fifty per cent of Tory members told YouGov pollsters that it was “right” that a vote of no confidence in his leadership was called and 44 per cent said it was “wrong”.
Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, has told journalists that he will announce the result of the vote at 9pm tonight.
It is understood that the threshold of no confidence letters needed from Tory MPs to force a vote, 54, was reached on Sunday and that more were expected today after the end of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations.
Johnson was told by Brady about the impending vote early yesterday afternoon, with the pair agreeing to hold the vote today.
The vote comes less than two weeks after Sue Gray’s report into the partygate scandal was released.
The release of the Gray report clearly showed a pattern of brazen Covid rule breaking across Number 10, with the senior civil servant putting the blame on Johnson for overseeing a toxic culture in Downing Street.
Johnson apologised for the scandal, but insisted he did not know the litany of lockdown-busting events were against his own Covid rules.
A steady trickle of Conservative MPs have come out against Johnson in the week and a half since the release of the report, with rumours that up to 67 letters of no confidence were sent to Sir Graham Brady.
“I’ve been a little bit wary as this process has gone on for six months,” Brady said.
Johnson’s anti-corruption tsar John Penrose quit his position today and said he would vote for Johnson to be removed as leader.
Penrose said Johnson broke the ministerial code over the Downing Street Covid parties scandal.
Jesse Norman, formerly a close Boris Johnson ally, today called for the PM to resign for the first time.
Former close Johnson ally Jesse Norman today said: “Under you the government seems to lack a sense of mission. It has a large majority, but no long-term plan.
“Rather, you are simply seeking to campaign, to keep changing the subject and to create political and cultural dividing lines mainly for your advantage.”