Boris Johnson has overcome the motion of censure organized by his colleagues in the Conservative Party, but it cannot be said that he has emerged victorious. The lunge has left his leadership badly wounded. That 41% of the Tories want to get rid of the 57-year-old leader harms the functioning of the government from now on. There are 148 rebels, enough to paralyze their plans if they want to. For all these reasons, the British press gives the premier a few days to live (politically).
Monday’s vote, prompted in part by the disgrace inflicted on Johnson by the Downing Street riot scandal during lockdown, dominated this morning’s headlines. Even the Times, a newspaper related to the Tories, described the prime minister as “a wounded winner” and within the article subtly indicated the exit door for him by recalling that his predecessor, Theresa May, survived a motion of no confidence in 2018 for a wider margin, but was forced to resign a few months later.
“PM clings to power after humiliating vote,” The Guardian headlined. The London newspaper points out that a Tory rebellion like the one that resulted was not expected. “It was the worst verdict on a sitting prime minister by his own party in recent times.”
A witty Daily Mirror, which helped expose the details of the (some highly drunken) parties at partygate, simply headlined: “Party’s over, Boris” (Metro headlines the same way). The tabloid claims that the prime minister has suffered a “brutal attack” by his own camp “and is warned that he will be out in a year.” Under the rule, a Tory leader who has won a no-confidence motion is safe for one year. Still, Johnson could fall even sooner: May had to resign in 2019 when her party threatened to change this rule so she could undergo the same procedure, six months after winning.
The Financial Times, for its part, points out that the narrow margin in the result of the motion (211 votes in favor of Johnson against 148 against) “has seriously damaged the authority (of the prime minister) and has revealed the scope of division and animosity within his party. The newspaper specialized in economic information points out that the vote “was accompanied by resentment and withering criticism towards the prime minister by his colleagues.”
The Daily Telegraph points in the same direction in its article entitled “Empty victory tears the Tories”, where it highlights that Johnson’s authority has been “crushed”, while the premier bets on continuing to fight and the rebels continue to lie in wait to finish him off as prime minister.
The Sun highlights the premier’s narrow victory while describing the vote, which was delayed until late Monday, as the “Night of blond knives”, which in English sounds similar to the night of long knives. (Night of long knives), the name by which the political purge carried out by Adolf Hitler in 1934 is known. “Stabbed in the back by 148 Tories,” reads the subtitle of the tabloid.
However, the prime minister still has the defiant support of his sympathetic newspapers. Focusing on the concern of some Conservatives that Johnson’s fall would spell the end of the Conservatives’ 12 years in power, the Daily Mail has warned that “MPs are pushing the self-destruct button by opening the door to the chaos (from Labor Party leader Keir) Starmer”. By this, he refers to a possible alliance between the opposition formations Labour, Liberals and the Scottish nationalists. Underneath, its main headline reads “Boris swears: I’ll keep going.”
