: Boris Johnson Survived a No-Confidence Vote. He May Stick Around a While #WorldNEWS British prime minister Boris Johnson survived a bitter no-confidence vote on Monday after 148 lawmakers from his

Boris Johnson Survived a No-Confidence Vote. He May Stick Around a While #WorldNEWS
British prime minister Boris Johnson survived a bitter no-confidence vote on Monday after 148 lawmakers from his party—more than 40% of Conservative Members of Parliament—declared they had lost confidence in his ability to lead their party and govern the country.
Johnson has been mired in scandal following an official investigation into a series of illegal parties at his Downing Street office, which took place during nationwide COVID-19 lockdowns.
While many of the front pages of the British newspapers predicted that Johnson’s victory—a smaller margin than his predecessor Theresa May when she faced a similar challenge in 2018—as the beginning of his eventual demise, some onlookers believe he might hold onto power for some time.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=true]
“His fingers will have to be prized off the doorknob of 10 Downing Street,” says Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London.
After receiving a fine in April from the London Metropolitan police for attending one of the illegal gatherings in June 2020, Johnson became the first sitting British Prime Minister to be found to have broken the law while in office. Political convention in the U. K. had long been that any breaches to the ministerial code require resignation, before Johnson amended the code ahead of the official investigation.
Read more: Why Boris Johnson Could Lose His Job Over a Birthday Party
But Johnson has vowed not to resign over what the media dubbed the “partygate” scandal—compelling some within his own party to withdraw their support for his leadership. The threshold of at least 54 Conservative lawmakers—15% of the total—needed to trigger a vote of no confidence was met on Monday.
Declining support for the Conservative Party
Although the Conservatives command a large majority in parliament, the partygate crisis has angered the British public, prompting fears that voters will punish the party during the next general election in 2024.
There is also growing public dissatisfaction over the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades, post-Brexit trade disagreements in Northern Ireland, and an economy still recovering from the pandemic.
Upcoming by-elections on June 23 in two Conservative, or Tory, constituencies—which were both triggered by the resignation of lawmakers, one after being found guilty for the sexual assault of a 15-year-old boy, and the other for watching pornography in the House of Commons—are expected to see the Conservative share of the vote slip.
“The biggest problem for Boris Johnson isn’t how unpopular he is among Tory MPs, it’s how unpopular he is among the public,” tweeted George Eaton, a senior editor at the New Statesman, following the no-confidence vote.