Boris Johnson to face confidence vote today as he seeks the support of Tory MPs

Boris Johnson has sent a letter to Conservative MPs calling for their support ahead of a confidence vote in his leadership of the Conservative Party today.

After enough MPs submitted letters calling for a contest a vote will take place between 6pm and 8pm this evening in the House of Commons, with the result expected about an hour after voting closes.

Following months of speculation, it was confirmed at least 54 Mps, 15% of Tory Mps, have written to the chair of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, Sir Graham Brady, calling for a vote just under two and a half years after the Tories won their biggest majority since the 1980s.

He said he notified the PM on Sunday that the threshold had been reached and they agreed on timings for the vote together.

Johnson is set to make an in-person plea to his MPs at 4pm to urge them to continue their support of him and has sent them a letter ahead of that.

He said he has “come under a great deal of fire” in recent months over partygate and admitted “some of that criticism has perhaps been fair, some less so”.

But he said the confidence vote is a “golden chance to put this behind us”, and added: “With your support, I believe that tonight we have a great prize within our grasp”.

“We can put an end to the media’s favorite obsession. We can get on with the job without the noises off,” he wrote after outlining his successes with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, low unemployment, helping Ukraine and sending migrants to Rwanda.

He also promised he and Chancellor Rishi Sunak will, over the next few weeks, “be setting out all the ways in which we will be using Conservative principles to take advantage of our new freedoms, cut costs and drive growth”.

Sir Graham said he would not reveal when the threshold had been reached or how many letters have been submitted but it would “not be a bad description” to say some MPs had asked for their letters to be post-dated to ensure the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations were not interrupted.

For the PM to be ousted, half of Tory MPs plus one would need to vote against him, which is currently 180 MPs.

A Downing Street spokesman said: “Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people’s priorities.

“The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they’re united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force.”

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES