British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday promised to refocus his government on addressing voters’ priorities, and tried to unite his party behind him after an attempt by his Conservative party colleagues to oust him.
On Monday night, 41% of conservative lawmakers voted in favor of removing Johnson from office, in a no-confidence vote. The effort failed but it was a particularly large revolt against a leader who until half a year ago was considered one of the most effective politicians in conveying the message of the Conservative Party.
Rates of support for the British leader plummeted as part of a crisis over the cost of living and his presence at several parties at the Prime Minister’s House in London while the city was under Corona closures.
On Tuesday, Johnson convened his ministers and said it was time to focus on policy, now that the failed no-confidence vote is over. “We can continue the conversation about what I think people in this country want us to talk about,” Johnson told his colleagues, who had gathered around the cabinet table on Downing Street for a speech broadcast on television.
To emphasize the point, Johnson is planning a tight schedule, the details of which have not yet been released. This week he will talk about the issue of affordable housing in an important speech. Next week, Johnson will present his plans to bolster Britain’s inflation-hit economy before demonstrating his importance as an international leader later this month at a meeting of the Group of Seven Leading Economies and a meeting of the North Atlantic United States, NATO.
The government also plans to send a first group of asylum seekers from different countries to Rwanda, as part of a controversial strategy to suppress illegal immigration, a high priority for many British voters.
On paper, Johnson seems to have a strong hand. He controls a majority of 80 seats in parliament, and under the rules of the Conservative Party now can not be a challenge against his leadership for a year. The next general election should not take place before the beginning of 2025.
Beyond that, there are no people in the conservative party ranks who can easily replace Johnson, analysts say. No member of the party has a familiar name like his or a similar electoral record.
However, some Conservative Party members say Johnson’s brand has been tainted following repeated scandals, combining tax increases and policies designed to protect the environment that have led to the alienation of many other conservatives. The biggest issue for Johnson is that now the opposition has become personal, says Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University in London. “It’s not a matter of policy, it’s a matter of personality,” he said. “Johnson is the problem.”
A poll this week among Conservative party members who are mostly loyal and conducted by the Conservative Home website found that 55% of respondents believe lawmakers should have fired Johnson. A YouGov poll on Monday found that six out of 10 voters think the government lacks the right ideas to fix the cost of living crisis. The Conservative Party lags behind Labor in the polls.
In parliament, conservative lawmakers find it hard to come to terms with the fact that their party, which has long built its reputation for law and order, is led by a man fined for breaking the law for celebrating his own birthday during a closure.
Johnson apologized for the parties at 10 Downing Street and said he thought attending such events was part of his area of ​​responsibility to encourage faculty members. He has wasted his time in recent days trying to persuade disgruntled lawmakers to forget the “Privilege” scandal. On Monday, James Calverley, a Conservative lawmaker loyal to the prime minister, said Johnson “came to work” and refocused his activities.
“The prime minister’s rivals will have to acknowledge that he has won and his supporters and the prime minister himself need to accept the fact that a policy change is needed,” said David Frost, a member of the House of Lords who was a former adviser to Johnson. “If he can change that, then he can take a different path and save the prime minister.”
Later this month, his party will face two rounds of elections in the provinces that will demonstrate – say pollsters – if his attempt succeeds in appealing to the hearts of blue-collar and traditional voters for the Conservative Party. On June 23, parliamentary elections will be held in Wakefield, a northern county that Johnson converted in 2019 from a Labor county to a Conservative county, and Tiberton and Huniton, a historically conservative county in the south-west of England. A big loss in these seats would reinforce the narrative that Johnson is no longer able to unite the Conservative Party’s decentralized voter base.
Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee is examining whether Johnson deliberately lied to parliament when he denied that Corona rules had been violated at 10 Downing Street. The conclusions of the inquiry are expected to be received in the autumn, ahead of the party’s annual meeting.
But the economy will continue to be the main issue, and the Bank of England expects inflation to reach 10% by the end of the year. Fuel prices are rising and policymakers say they have no hand in getting them down, given that prices are affected by supply chains in a world over which England has no control.
If the polls get worse, then the Conservative Party’s 1922 committee, which deals with party policy issues, may change its regulations and allow another vote of confidence before the end of the year. In the past, party officials have opposed such measures.