54 Letters

He won't go unless someone steps up who can replace him successfully. Jeremy Hunt has such an unfortunate name and invites comedy, Rishi is now just a rich boy, May has failed once, will Gove be resurrected? They all fail the popularity test. As for newer MPs who's heard of most of them?

What a toxic environment to work in. I’m convinced the 2019 MP I sometimes email will be wanting to send a letter in. I know he’s a Conservative but I worry about him. It’s no place for someone with any integrity. I can’t quite believe what’s happening. Dare I mention that now that people have realised that Johnson is an out and out liar he lied about brexit as well. Or was he honest and upright when campaigning for leave….

MayBee70

I know it’s in the Guardian but they say that younger MP’s are scared to send in letters of no confidence because of reprisals and that they’re worried that if they email it the email will be leaked.

Apparently other MPs have offered to do it for them. Trouble is no one trusts anyone.

What a shower.

I know it’s in the Guardian but they say that younger MP’s are scared to send in letters of no confidence because of reprisals and that they’re worried that if they email it the email will be leaked.

Ben Wallace and Tom Tugendhat are, apparently, popular choices with the Tory faithful.

I agree that she cares but her great faults were her inability to delegate and her total reliance on inept advisers to the exclusion of advice from her Cabinet. Perhaps she has learned a lesson about the latter, but someone who is unable to delegate doesn’t change.

Well there clearly is someone else, who has already done the job isn’t there. May would be a much better option than Johnson. I’m not a fan of hers, but I do think she cares, and she’s not flaky.

A Tory HQ person on Newsnight last night was convinced that 54 letters have gone in and said Graham Brady wants to wait till next week after the Jubilee celebrations to announce it.

However don't get too excited because the 3 panellists (Tory, Lib Dem and ex Tory) predicted he would win a confidence vote. They pointed out that Theresa May still had to go 6 months after winning a confidence vote because of unpopularity with her Brexit deal and she had Cabinet Ministers resigning. Also, that the 1922 Committee can change its rules about the frequency of confidence votes if they wish to.

I don't care if BoJo stays on and has a humiliating defeat in the next General Election but I think something else will happen to cause his downfall.

Sunak has lost public support what with his wife's non dom debacle and Liz Truss is IMHO full of hot air as well as thinking she's hot. I can't take her seriously. I don't know much about Penny Mordaunt and Jeremy Hunt promised to recruit more GPs but the numbers actually went down so he can't be trusted to do what he promises.

I just hope the Slithy Tove/Gove stays out of it. He is the least trustworthy of all.

Like many on here, I am swaying on what I want to happen to Johnson, or more accurately, when. I can see the attraction of allowing him to ramble on for the next two years and make such a mess of things that he and his cohort taint the party so badly that they are in the political wilderness for years. But, what he could do in the next two years terrifies me, the damage could take years to remedy and many, many people would suffer. As for his replacement; Hunt is smart, articulate, but was in charge of health when operation Cygnet was stuffed into the 'too hard' file, and is very pro privatising the NHS. In my opinion, not one of the current cabinet should be considered suitable for PM as they are enablers and as guilty, if not more so, as Johnson.

The main reason for keeping him in power is that there's no one else! Seriously, is this really the best that the Tories can come up with? Not that there's much going on in the world at the moment. One thing I am sure if is that Johnson will never leave voluntarily. Personally I'm looking forward to a Labour government.

Jeremy Hunt was also terribly keen on privatising the NHS.

Let’s not forget that Hunt was health secretary when Operation Cygnus took place which concluded that we were I’ll prepared to face a potential pandemic and he did nothing. I admit that, unlike most of the people in government he looks and talks like a sensible human being but he really is the best of a bad bunch.

Apparently a new leader is being discussed. Jeremy Hunt and Penny Mordant are in the running. I would be happy with either of them. I might even be tempted to vote Tory when the time comes. Don’t care for Liz Truss and not completely sure about Rishi Sunak but to be honest he would be far better than Johnson. What I can’t stand are the statements that there is no one else. Unbelievable because if Johnson is all they can offer then the Tories are finished.

Whitewavemark2

Interesting about plans for regular press meetings.

It would be more believable if there was a clear economic policy, but Johnson lurches and reacts from one crises to another - many of his own making.

The press meetings would simply serve to make people even crosser.

Totally agree with you there. This government have no policies. They are a lame duck. Doing nothing but trying to survive each daily crisis. So busy with the corruption and internal issues there's no time to make plans to improve our lives

Interesting about plans for regular press meetings.

It would be more believable if there was a clear economic policy, but Johnson lurches and reacts from one crises to another - many of his own making.

The press meetings would simply serve to make people even crosser.

Johnson has been warned he is placing the ministerial code at risk of "ridicule".

*"Boris Johnson is at risk of placing the ministerial code in a place of “ridicule” over the Partygate scandal, according to his own ethics adviser.

In a scathing public rebuke, Christopher Geidt said there were “legitimate” questions over whether Mr Johnson had breached ministerial standards and made a veiled threat to quit if the PM said there was no case to answer.

Labour said the row showed that Mr Johnson’s “days are numbered” after he “tried to rig the rules and evade scrutiny”.

But the prime minister insisted he had not breached the code, and blamed a “failure of communication” for what Lord Geidt said was a repeated oversight to heed his advice.

The spat came as Mr Johnson rang potential rebels on the Conservative backbenches in a desperate bid to shore up his position ahead of a vote of no confidence in his leadership that many Tory MPs now expect to be called when parliament returns next week.

It comes as the Telegraph reported Downing Street is preparing to go on "economic war-footing" in the weeks after the Queen's Jubilee in a bid to stabilise Mr Johnson's premiership.

Plans being considered are said to include a return to regular Covid-style press briefings, but which would instead focus on the economy. The briefings would seek to explain what is being done to help ease the cost of living crisis and provide the latest data, the newspaper reported."*

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-partygate-adviser-geidt-b2091294.html

It also puts Johnson ( and the country) in a dangerous position where he himself is open to all sort of bribery just to gain support. How on earth did British politics* reach this state of affairs?
*not really meaning to include countries outside of England by the way…..

FarNorth

If they go for that bribery we'll know they are all as loathsome as Johnson.

I think we know that already, FarNorth

If they go for that bribery we'll know they are all as loathsome as Johnson.

There probably isn't any single person good enough for the job, Maybee, but (a) for starters someone just needs to be better than BJ to be a vast improvement, and (b) what is needed at the moment with so many crises on the horizon is not a single person but a competent and co-ordinated team.

"If the threshold is met, MPs are expecting a lobbying campaign from Downing Street with the prime minister expected to offer jobs, knighthoods, trade envoy roles and any other inducements which could win wavering MPs around.

How could they believe that he would actually deliver on his promises?

Or that he would be any better as PM post 'winning' a no confidence vote than he has been to date?

Or is he assuming that tory MPs are brain dead?

I have held off sending my views to my useless Tory MP because I am in two minds here. If Johnson, or in John Crace’s words “The Defendent”, remains in power the Tories will likely be decimated at the next GE.
On the other hand if he, and some of his cronies, are not removed, the damage already done to this country, will only spiral over the next two years.

Difficult. If Johnson stays we will surely have a Labour government at the next election. But we need, for the sake of the country, a new PM. Having said that ( and I’m not saying this purely as a Labour voter) , I can’t see anyone good enough in this government to get the country out of the mess we’re in.

William Hague has come out of the traps now saying " the party was 'moving towards' holding a full vote on the PM's future in the wake of Partygate - potentially as soon as next week."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10870357/Whips-brace-protect-Boris-Tory-no-confidence-letters-near-magic-number.html

According to Sky News:
"If the threshold is met, MPs are expecting a lobbying campaign from Downing Street with the prime minister expected to offer jobs, knighthoods, trade envoy roles and any other inducements which could win wavering MPs around.

He will tell them he can put partygate behind him and deliver on promises to level up."

news.sky.com/story/boris-johnson-senior-tories-bracing-for-possible-vote-of-confidence-as-soon-as-next-week-12624700

It's all in the hands of the MPs now. Will they do the right thing for the country and get him out or will they continue to be cowardly and look after their own skins?