AFTER months of speculation and plotting, a sufficient number of Conservative MPs have now submitted letters of no confidence in Boris Johnson to the chair of the Tory backbench 1922 committee, triggering a formal vote of no confidence in Johnson among Conservative MPs.
It is quite remarkable that a prime minister who won a majority of 80 in a General Election just over two years ago should find himself in this position. Johnson has brought this entirely on himself, by his self-indulgent and entitled behaviour and his abiding belief that rules and laws are for the little people to obey, not for him.
The vote will take place from 6pm until 8pm this evening, with the result announced shortly afterwards. Although it only required 54 MPs to submit letters of no confidence and trigger this evening's vote, 180 MPs will have to vote against Johnson in order to unseat him and set a leadership election in motion. That is a much harder total to achieve. Those seeking to unseat him may be looking at a YouGov poll of Conservative Party members which found that 53% want MPs to keep him in post with just 42% wanting MPs to remove him. Should Johnson survive this evening's vote, the rules of the Conservative Party dictate that he will be safe from another challenge for the next 12 months. If that does happen, for months to come, the sole focus of the British government will be to ensure Johnson’s survival.
In the meantime, we can expect more hideous right-wing British nationalist populist measures like the disgraceful Rwanda policy – policies designed to appeal to the Brexit-supporting Union flag wavers as a weakened Johnson seeks to shore up his position. But then British politics has long since ceased to be about public service and instead is all about the service that the public can render to the careers and egos of Johnson and his enablers.
Johnson has already made it clear that he will not go quietly and will not hesitate to employ every dirty trick at his disposal in order to maintain his grip on power. While he may win the vote tonight, unlike previous leaders, Johnson would not step down if there is a significant vote against him and he is seen to have lost the support of a large part of his MPs.
Today, Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg said Johnson should stay in office if he wins by a single vote despite previously demanding that Theresa May quit after she won the leadership challenge against her by 83 votes.
Johnson would not care about the damage that clinging on would do to the Conservative Party, he cares only about himself. The Conservatives put him in office in full knowledge of his lying, his dishonesty and his lack of principle. They didn't care about it when they thought that Johnson was a vote-winner for them. They didn't care about the damage that such a man who is manifestly unfit for high office would do to the UK, to acceptable standards in public life, to democracy itself. They still don't care about any of that – they only care that Johnson is no longer a vote-winner for them.
This evening's vote is not about holding Johnson to account, it is not about preserving the highest standards of behaviour in public office. It is entirely about saving the Conservative Party from the consequences of its own deceit and mendacity and finding a new leader who can secure Conservative rule. This vote is not an example of democracy in action, it is an illustration of how democracy in the UK has failed.
This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.
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