UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson will face a vote of confidence in his leadership, after a number of Conservative MPs submitted letters saying they no longer wanted him to carry on.
The move follows revelations about lockdown-breaking parties in and around Downing Street.
To trigger a leadership challenge in the Conservative Party, at least 15 percent of sitting MPs have to write a letter saying they no longer have any confidence in the prime minister. Given that there are currently 359 Conservative MPs, this works out as 54 MPs. No
These letters are sent to Sir Graham Brady, the current chairman of the 1922 Committee – the parliamentary group representing all backbench Conservative MPs.
Sir Graham has now said the threshold has been reached and the vote will take place on Monday evening – 6pm UK time and 5am on Tuesday morning in New Zealand.
Sir Graham said the votes would be counted immediately afterwards.
He said he informed Johnson yesterday and they agreed to hold the vote as soon as possible.
Asked when the threshold was passed, Sir Graham said some Tory MPs “asked specifically that it should not be until the end of the Jubilee celebrations”.
Pressed on whether MPs post-dated their letters to ensure there was no distraction from the Jubilee, Sir Graham admitted “that is not a bad description of events”. (RNZ)
