Here’s a roundup of the key developments from this evening: Boris Johnson was clinging to his premiership on Monday night after 148 of his MPs voted to oust him from Downing Street in a ballot that exposed potentially fatal rifts within his party. The prime minister won the support of 211 MPs but 41% of his party voted to get rid of him. It was the worst verdict on a sitting prime minister by their own party in recent times. In a clip for broadcasters Boris Johnson has described the result as “good news” because, he claimed, it would allow the government to put Partygate behind it and to focus on “what we as a government are doing to help people”. He insisted it was an “extremely good” result despite a worse performance than Theresa May in her confidence vote. Keir Starmer said it was “grotesque” that Tory MPs voted to support someone with no sense of duty. He said: “The Conservative party now believes that breaking the law is no impediment to making the law. The Conservative party now believes that the British public have no right to expect honest politicians.” Starting an instant spin operation outside the room where the result was announced, the Foreign Office minister James Cleverly called it “a comfortable win” and said rebels should now give up on their efforts. Meanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi, the education secretary, told Sky News that Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, would be “punching the air” tonight because his ally, Boris Johnson, will remain as PM. Tory rebels have vowed to keep trying to force Boris Johnson from office, as the prime minister’s allies admitted he was reaching “the beginning of the end” after a devastating result in Monday night’s confidence vote. They will hold his feet to the fire as the next Partygate inquiry – into whether the prime minister misled parliament by denying any Covid rules were broken in Downing Street – gets under way in the coming weeks. My colleague Jessica Elgot has written about how the day of infighting played out.
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