No confidence vote rule change being worked on says Tory MP
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Tory MP Andrew Bridgen has revealed that he is standing for the executive role of the 1922 Committee with the hope of changing the no confidence vote rule system. Boris Johnson, who survived the vote earlier this month by 211 votes to 148, cannot be subject to another vote for 12 months. But the Prime Minister is facing mounting pressure to resign following a double by-election defeat.
Speaking to GB News, Mr Bridgen said: “Nominations for membership of the 1922 Committee open next week, I think the vote will be the week after.
“And I’m going to put my hat in the ring on a manifesto of rule change and clearly if a majority of the Committee are elected on that mindset then the rules can be changed.
“I think if the Committee is of such a composition that would indicate then the party is ready for another vote of no confidence again.”
GB News presenter Tom Harwood then asked: “Are you the only one putting yourself forward on an explicit manifesto of rule change?”
Mr Bridgen replied: “I think all the candidates who will put their name forward next week for the Committee, I have no doubt that the major question will be are you in favour or against rule change.”
Mr Johnson vowed to “keep going” after his authority was dealt a series of blows, including the resignation of Cabinet minister Oliver Dowden on Friday.
former Conservative leader Michael Howard urged the Cabinet to consider resigning, as Conservative MPs voiced their fears of losing their seats at the next general election under the Prime Minister’s leadership.
“The party and more importantly the country would be better off under new leadership,” he told BBC Radio 4’s the World At One programme.
Boris Johnson: 'Another no confidence vote likely' says Davey
“Members of the Cabinet should very carefully consider their positions.”
Mr Howard, who led the Tories between 2003 and 2005, has not been an outspoken critic of Mr Johnson’s in the past, but did sack him as a shadow minister for lying.
Speaking 4,000 miles away at a Commonwealth summit in Rwanda, Mr Johnson vowed to “listen” to voters after losing the former Tory stronghold of Tiverton and Honiton to the Liberal Democrats and Wakefield to Labour.
Mr Dowden quit as Conservative Party co-chairman, saying he and Tory supporters were “distressed and disappointed by recent events” and telling Mr Johnson that “someone must take responsibility”.
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With 324 Tory MPs elected in 2019 with smaller majorities than in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, MPs including Conservative grandee Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown expressed their concerns that they could lose their seats at the next general election.
The Prime Minister spoke to Chancellor Rishi Sunak by phone for his daily meeting after receiving a warning call from Mr Dowden following an early-morning swim at his hotel.
Speaking to broadcasters, Mr Johnson said he would take responsibility, but insisted the cost-of-living crisis was the most important issue for voters and it was “true that, in mid-term, governments post-war lose by-elections”.
“It’s absolutely true we’ve had some tough by-election results. They’ve been, I think, a reflection of a lot of things, but we’ve got to recognise voters are going through a tough time at the moment,” he said at the conference centre in Kigali.
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