Today's no confidence vote: Conservative Heswall Councillor hopes it will 'clear the air'

The day after the end of Jubilee celebrations, could the party be over for Boris Johnson too?

The Prime Minister will face a no confidence vote later today. 

This morning, Sir Graham Brady, Chair of the Conservative 1922 Committee, announced that MPs seeking a change of leadership had reached the necessary threshold to trigger a ballot - namely at least 54 letters expressing no confidence in the PM.

To survive the vote — coming in the wake of the confusion and resentment caused by the so-called Partygate scandals, and amid the cost of living crisis — the Prime Minister must win the support of 50 per cent of his colleagues in a secret ballot.

In an email to Tory MPs, Sir Graham said the vote will be held in the House of Commons between 6pm and 8pm.

The vote raises the prospect of Boris Johnson being ousted from Downing Street just three years after winning the Conservatives' largest majority for many years in 2019.

Responding to today's events, Kathy Hodson, one of Heswall's three Conservative councillors, said: "Whilst it is disappointing that we find ourselves in the position of a no confidence vote, I feel that it will clear the air and it will mean once the Prime Minister has been successful the country then can move on and the Conservative government can deliver the policies it promised after the last election."

Not long before the vote was announced, former minister Jesse Norman revealed his damning letter of no confidence, saying the Prime Minister had "presided over a culture of casual law-breaking at 10 Downing Street in relation to Covid".

He wrote that Mr Johnson's claim he had been vindicated by the Sue Gray's long awaited report was "grotesque" - adding that the party could not "squander the next two years adrift and distracted by endless debate about you and your leadership" , and that "the Government seems to lack a sense of mission".

But a No 10 spokesperson countered by saying: "Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people's priorities."

We would be interested to know what readers think.

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