‘211 to 148’ — Boris Johnson survives no-confidence vote

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has secured a chance to continue in office after lawmakers decided on a no-confidence vote.

The no-confidence vote is a decision by lawmakers to determine if the UK prime minister is fit to continue in office.

Among issues which led to the no-confidence vote included Johnson attending a birthday party during the COVID lockdown in June 2020, as well as dissatisfaction with government policies.

On his attendance at the birthday party, the prime minister was fined for violating COVID protocol.

Announcing the result of the votes cast on Monday, Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 committee — a panel of Conservative members of parliament — said Johnson got 211 votes out of the 359 votes cast.

“I can report as returning officer that the 359 ballots, no spoiled ballots, that the votes in favour of having confidence in Boris Johnson as a leader was 211 votes, and the vote against was 148 votes. And therefore, I can announce that the parliamentary party does have confidence in Boris Johnson,” he said.

However, despite over 40 percent of members of his party reportedly voting against him, Johnson expressed satisfaction with the result of the no-confidence vote.

“What we need to do now is come together as a government and as a party, and that is exactly what we can now do,” he said in a video shared on his social media pages on Monday night.

“And what this gives us is the opportunity to put behind us all the stuff that I know the media have quite properly wanted to focus on for a very long time, and to do our job, which is to focus on the stuff that I think the public actually wants us to be talking about, which is what we are doing to help the people in this country and all the things we’re doing to take this country forward.

“So, what this means tonight, is that we can focus on exactly that.”