Boris Johnson has boldly claimed that ‘absolutely nothing and no one’ will stop him, after a near-fatal rebellion by Tory MPs.
The brash comments came in the Prime Minister’s first parliamentary appearance since surviving a Conservative vote of confidence by 211 to 148.
Sue Gray’s report on the lockdown parties in Downing Street prompted the vote of confidence, but the Tories revealed their displeasure on a range of issues – from Northern Ireland’s protocol with the EU to high levels of taxation .
Read more: Boris Johnson says massive Tory rebellion against leadership is a ‘good result’
Former Labor minister Dame Angela Eagle, raising the Prime Minister’s Questions vote, said: ‘The events of this week have shown how much this Prime Minister is hated and that is only within his own party.
“As his administration is too distracted by its internal divisions to deal with the challenges we face, can the Prime Minister explain if 148 of his own backbench MPs don’t trust him why on earth should the country- he do it?”
Mr Johnson replied: ‘I can assure you in a long political career so far – barely started – of course I have picked up political opponents everywhere and that is because this Government has done things very important and very noteworthy that they didn’t necessarily endorse.
“And what I want her to know is that absolutely nothing and no one, especially her, is going to stop us from continuing to deliver for the British people.”
Under current party rules, Mr Johnson is now immune to another formal confidence vote, although the 1922 backbench committee could potentially rewrite the rules if there is renewed pressure for change.
At the moment, there seems to be no appetite among the rebels for another immediate action against the prime minister.
However, he has two tricky by-elections in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and Tiverton and Honiton, Devon, amid warnings they could fall to Labor and the Liberal Democrats respectively.
Such a double defeat could be the catalyst for further soul-searching within the party, leading to new demands for change at the top.
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