It’s hard to see how Johnson recovers from this
The morning after doesn’t look any better
The big question now for Conservative MP’s is whether they think the party can recover if Johnson stays as leader. My view and I’m sure that is shared by many on the site is that there is a point of no return and that has been reached.
Once it has been concluded that this has been a turning point for the party then surely we should expect some action to be taken. The open issue is when.
A week today we have the Shropshire North by-election where the Tories look in trouble against a party that was 50% behind them at GE2019. Could taking action now save the seat?
The alternative is to wait to see what happens and if the Tories survive there then they still are lumbered with a leader who clearly is a huge electoral liability. A Redfield poll overnight had LAB with a 4% lead – the best position it has been in with any survey since the last election.
In the betting it is still about a 50% chance that Johnson will survive until the end of next year.