Rebels plotting to force another confidence vote

SUPPORTERS and opponents of Boris Johnson are gearing up for a battle over changing the Conservative Party’s rules to allow another confidence vote in the Prime Minister.

Rebel MPs yesterday threatened to bring forward a fresh leadership challenge in the wake of Thursday’s byelection losses.

Senior backbencher Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said he would discuss with colleagues whether they should rewrite the rules so a second confidence vote could be held early.

Earlier this month, 148 Conservative MPs – more than 40 per cent of them – voted to say they did not have confidence in the PM. Under the rules of the party’s backbench 19 Committee, Mr Johnson should be safe from another challenge for the next 1 months.

But Andrew Bridgen said he would stand in elections to the committee next month on a manifesto of allowing another no-confidence vote now.

Tory whips vowed to block such a move by getting pro-Johnson MPs elected to the committee’s executive.

Speaking in Rwanda, where he is at a Commonwealth summit, Mr Johnson said he was not worried that Tory MPs would spend the next week plotting to get rid of him while he was away.

Sir Geoffrey, the treasurer of the 19 Committee, said the Conservatives had ‘some difficult decisions to make, no doubt’ on how to move forward. The MP for the Cotswolds told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that colleagues would in the coming days decide whether to try to oust the PM.

Sir Geoffrey, who voted against Mr Johnson in the confidence vote, said the PM would set out to Cabinet members and MPs how he was going to respond to the two by-election defeats and to the cost of living squeeze.

Sir Geoffrey later told Times Radio the executive of the 19 Committee might decide on a change to the rules but this was ‘quite difficult’. Alternatively the Cabinet could turn on Mr Johnson and ask him to step down, he said.

Mr Bridgen said: ‘I’m going to put my hat in the ring on a manifesto of rule change and clearly if a majority of the committee are elected on that mindset then the rules can be changed.’

Former minister Steve Baker, a leading critic of Mr Johnson, is also expected to stand. He said: ‘Like so many backbench MPs, I am looking to the Cabinet for leadership, especially from those who aspire to be seen to provide it.’

There are 18 Conservative MPs in senior roles on the 19 Committee and they can change the rules.