Out-of-touch PM to face crunch vote ‘this week’
PARTY MOVES TO OUST UNDER-FIRE JOHNSON Tories could be ‘wiped out’ by Labour at key Wakefield by-election, poll says
BORIS Johnson could face a crunch vote on his premiership as new polling predicted the Conservatives risk being pummelled by Labour at a key by-election.
A survey of voters in Wakefield has suggested the Tories could lose the by-election on June 23 by as much as 20 points.
Polling by JL Partners put Labour on 48 points compared with 28 points for Johnson’s outfit – a 19 point slip on the winning Tory performance two-and-a-half years ago.
The survey comes amid reports the threshold for a no-confidence vote might have been reached – with suggestions a leadership test could be coming as soon as Wednesday.
James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, said the so-called Partygate saga looked to have damaged the Tory reputation among Red Wall voters.
The polling expert said the top reason swing voters in the Yorkshire seat – who are choosing which candidate to succeed Tory incumbent Imran Ahmad Khan after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting a boy – gave for preferring Labour was because “Boris Johnson tried to cover up Partygate, and lied to the public”.
According to the company, 60 per cent of those interviewed for the survey taken online between May 13 and 22 had a negative opinion of
Partygate has turned people against the Tories
JAMES JOHNSON POLLING EXPERT
the PM. James Johnson said: “All signs are that Partygate has crystallised historic concerns about the Tories and turned the people of Wakefield decidedly against them.”
The poll could pile more pressure on the PM, who faces a second test in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election on the same day as Wakefield, in the wake of the party revelations.
Last month, a probe published by senior civil servant Sue Gray laid bare the details of a host of Covid rule-breaching gatherings held in No10 and Whitehall. Gray’s findings have accelerated calls for Johnson to resign, with almost 30 Tory MPs having called for him to quit. Under Conservative Party rules, if 54 letters of no confidence in his leadership are received then a ballot will be held.
The Sunday Times said it had been told that as many as 67 letters had gone in which, if correct, would mean the threshold has been reached.
The rebels would need 180 voters to remove the PM from power during the secret poll, otherwise affording him, by the current rules, a year’s stay of execution before another bid to oust him can be held.