Johnson could face VONC “in days” – Daily Mail
An upcoming John Major speech said to be “highly critical”
Like many PBers I am completely unable to forecast what is going to happen to Boris Johnson in the next week or so. This is currently the biggest UK political betting market and unusually for me I have not been confident enough to have a punt either way.
This is all totally in the hands of Tory MPs and what they say in public has to be treated with a pinch of salt. If you are ambitious to progress politics you are not going to risk alienating the incumbent because he might stay.
Inevitably this continues to get a lot of coverage in the media. In the Guardian Marina Hyde writes:
As we move into act 25 of the shitshow, then, it’s worth course-correcting to remember that the only person responsible for messing up Boris Johnson’s life and dream job is Boris Johnson. The rest are just bit parts – whatever they’d like to think.
This is Jack Wright in the Mail
A no-confidence vote in Boris Johnson’s tottering authority could happen within days despite MPs being away on recess, it has emerged.The 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, which oversees the process for removing a Conservative leader, has the ability to hold proxy votes — meaning that should the threshold of 54 letters be met next week, a vote on the Prime Minister’s leadership could still take place even if MPs cannot attend in person….the Tory leader will also have to brace himself for another political earthquake this week as Sir John Major prepares to accuse Mr Johnson of corroding trust in politics in a speech called ‘In democracy we trust?’ at the Institute for Government think-tank..Sir John is set to call into question Downing Street’s response to alleged lockdown-busting parties, which at first saw a blanket denial issued by Mr Johnson’s press team.
Whether the successor to Mrs Thatcher and the shock winner of GE1992 has any away with the current crop of MPs is hard to say but because of who he is the speech will get a lot of attention and keep the issue of Johnson’s leadership on the front pages.