Boris Johnson sets out case to secure leadership after surviving confidence vote

Prime Minister meets his Cabinet after major rebellion in leadership challenge

Prime Minister Boris Johnson chairs a meeting with his senior ministers at Downing Street on Tuesday. Getty

Boris Johnson on Tuesday sought to “draw a line” under the ethics scandals that have damaged his authority as Britain’s Prime Minister, after winning a bruising confidence vote that exposed his perilous position.

Mr Johnson drew his senior ministers together and told them to “focus exclusively” on bread-and-butter issues such as inflation and inequality, and hinted at future tax cuts and improvements to public services as he tries to claw back support.

Monday’s ballot of Conservative MPs saw Mr Johnson survive by 211 votes to 148 but the rebellion was larger than expected and revealed broad discontent on the Tory backbenches.

Although a loss of public trust over the Partygate scandal was the main grievance, MPs also cited a lack of direction, policy disputes and the belief that Mr Johnson is on course to lose the next election, expected in 2024.

The pound fell to near three-week lows as investors drew little confidence from Mr Johnson’s victory, which was narrower than a similar vote in 2018 for his predecessor Theresa May — who resigned only months later.

But Cabinet ministers rallied around Mr Johnson on Monday and urged rebel MPs not to trigger a long and bitter leadership contest, at a time of war in Europe and economic woes at home.

Mr Johnson told them at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting that the government could now “draw a line under the issues that our opponents want to talk about”.

“We are going to get on with the massive agenda that we were elected to deliver in 2019,” he said in televised opening remarks.

Boris Johnson has had an eventful time during his life in politics and journalism. Here, 'The National' looks back at his life in pictures. Getty Images

Mr Johnson attends the coronation ceremony of Britain's King Charles III at Westminster Abbey in May. Getty Images

Mr Johnson leaves his home to attend a televised evidence session in March in front of the Commons Privileges Committee. Getty Images

Mr Johnson listening to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy address parliamentarians in Westminster Hall in February. Getty Images

Mr Johnson and Carrie Johnson arrive at Westminster Abbey for the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. Getty Images

Mr Johnson he announces his resignation as prime minister outside 10 Downing Street in July 2022. Getty Images

Mr Johnson at a press conference in response to the publication of the Sue Gray report into Partygate at Downing Street in May 2022. Getty Images

Mr Johnson reads the long-awaited report by senior civil servant Sue Gray into the Downing Street party scandal, in his Downing Street office in May 2022. Photo: Downing Street

Mr Johnson and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in central Kyiv in April 2022. The British prime minister paid an unannounced visit to Kyiv in a show of solidarity with Ukraine. AFP

Mr Johnson watches an early morning police raid on a home in Liverpool as part of an operation to thwart drug dealing, in December, 2021. Getty Images

The prime minister battles with his umbrella while with Prince Charles at The National Memorial Arboretum in July 2021, in Stafford, England. Getty Images

Mr Johnson and his wife before the Uefa European Championship final between Italy and England at Wembley Stadium, London, in July last year. Getty Images

The British prime minister with US President Joe Biden, European Council President Charles Michel, former Japanese prime minister Yoshihide Suga and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi during the G7 Summit in Cornwall, in June 2021. Getty Images

Mr Johnson with his wife Carrie in the garden of 10 Downing Street after their wedding at Westminster Cathedral, in May last year. Getty Images

Boris Johnson visits Hartlepool after Conservative Party candidate Jill Mortimer won a parliamentary by-election in May, 2021. Getty Images

The prime minister after receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at St Thomas' Hospital in London in March, 2021. Getty Images

Boris Johnson after signing a Brexit trade deal with the EU in December 2020. Getty Images

Mr Johnson examines a vial of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 candidate vaccine, at a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Wrexham, Wales, in November 2020. Getty

Mr Johnson demonstrating the two-metre distancing rule during his visit to St Joseph's Catholic Primary School in Upminster, East London, in August 2020. PA

In this photo, published alongside the Sue Gray report into the Partygate affair, Mr Johnson is seen at a gathering in the Cabinet Room in 10 Downing Street on his birthday in June, 2020. Getty Images

Mr Johnson and former chancellor Rishi Sunak use hand sanitiser during a visit to the Pizza Pilgrims restaurant in June 2020, in east London, to see how they are getting their business ready to reopen as coronavirus lockdown restrictions were lifted in England. PA

Mr Johnson and his fiancee Carrie Symonds applaud key workers outside 10 Downing Street in May 2020, during the coronavirus pandemic. Getty Images

Mr Johnson in the Cabinet Room observing a minute's silence in April 2020 in a tribute to the health staff and key workers who died during the coronavirus outbreak. PA

Boris Johnson appears on monitors for a meeting in March 2020. The prime minister chaired morning meetings on the coronavirus remotely from Number 11 Downing Street, while self-isolating after testing positive for the virus. Reuters

Members of a family listen as BMr ris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation from 10 Downing Street in March 2020, where he outlined the latest instructions to stay at home to help contain the Covid-19 outbreak. AFP

Mr Johnson speaks to British troops stationed in Estonia during a one-day visit to the Baltic country in December 2019. Getty Images

Mr Johnson and Carrie Symonds enter Downing Street as the Conservatives celebrate a sweeping election victory in December 2019. Getty

Boris Johnson is greeted by staff at 10 Downing Street after meeting Queen Elizabeth II and accepting her invitation to form a new government in December 2012. PA

Former US president Donald Trump and Mr Johnson arrive for a bilateral meeting during the G7 summit in August 2019 in Biarritz, France. Getty

The queen welcomes Mr Johnson as the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, during an audience in July 2019. Getty Images

Mr Johnson, then Britain's foreign secretary, stands in front of St Basil's Cathedral during a visit to Moscow's Red Square in December 2017. Getty

Mr Johnson collides with a child during a Street Rugby tournament in Tokyo in 2015, held to mark Japan hosting the 2019 Rugby World Cup

As mayor of London Mr Johnson competes in a tug-of-war in October 2015. Getty Images

The Olympic Flag is passed from Mr Johnson to IOC President Jacques Rogge during the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Getty Images

Mayor of London Boris Johnson with Prime Minister David Cameron during the lighting of the Paralympic Cauldron in Trafalgar Square, in August 2012. PA

Boris Johnson gets stuck on a zip-line during a BT London Live event in Victoria Park in August 2012. Getty

Mr Johnson and Lord Sebastian Coe cheer as a giant set of Olympic rings is displayed from Tower Bridge in June 2012, Getty Images

Mr Johnson gestures attends a Harry Potter studio tour of Diagon Alley, at the Warner Brother Studios, London, in December 2011. AP Photo

Mr Johnson at the launch of London's first cycle hire scheme in July 2010. Getty Images

Mr Johnson with artists' impressions of the design for London's new Routemaster bus in May 2010. Getty Images

The candidates to be mayor of London; Labour's Ken Livingstone, Conservative Boris Johnson and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick, being questioned on BBC's 'Newsnight' programme in April 2008. Getty Images

Boris Johnson on the North Pier in Blackpool during the Conservative Party conference there in October 2005. Getty Images

Mr Johnson at his desk in 2000 while he was a journalist for 'The Telegraph'. Getty Images

Mr Johnson when he was president of the Oxford Union society speaking to the Greek minister for culture Melina Mercouri when she addressed the union. Reuters

Boris Johnson in September 1979, at Eton School. Shutterstock

As well as offering tax cuts in a bid on Monday to win over wavering MPs, Mr Johnson suggested speeding up waiting times for passports and driving licences.

He said ministers would “get on with talking about what I think the people of this country want us to talk about, and what we are doing to help them … we're going to focus exclusively on that”.

The confidence vote was triggered after 54 Tory MPs submitted formal requests for a ballot. Although that procedure cannot be repeated for 12 months, previous prime ministers have stepped down despite surviving confidence votes when their political fortunes did not improve.

Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Mr Johnson was “mortally wounded” given the number of Tory MPs who no longer have confidence in him.

“I think he is doing a disservice to the country and it is pretty clear now that the British public have lost all confidence in Boris Johnson,” she told Sky News.

Labour has led in the polls since the Partygate scandal broke, unnerving some Tory MPs only two-and-a-half years after the Conservative Party won its biggest parliamentary majority since 1987.

Mr Johnson apologised for what civil service investigator Sue Gray described as failures of leadership in Downing Street, after her report laid out details of late-night partying by officials while the country was in lockdown.

He paid a £50 ($63) fine for an illegal gathering on his birthday in 2020 but denied having misled Parliament about what had happened.