A large proportion of Britons are infuriated by reports of drunken nights in the gardens during the summer and Christmas parties in his Downing Street office.
The address, which serves as the home and office of UK prime ministers, hosted meetings at a time when the rest of the country was under a strict Covid-19 lockdown.
The events on Downing Street have put UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a difficult situation.
Two polls last week found that two-thirds of voters want Johnson to step down.
Johnson’s Future as Prime Minister
It’s too early to say whether it was Boris Johnson’s as premier is over
One factor that may work in your favor is that the process of getting rid of a British Conservative prime minister in power is quite complicated.
Prime ministers are not directly elected by the people: the British elect their local representatives in parliament, and the leader of the largest party in parliament becomes prime minister.
The UK does not need to hold another parliamentary election before 2024, and so there is no way for the common voter to snatch Johnson off Downing Street now.
Trouble among Conservatives
The people may not be able to remove Johnson from office, but Conservative lawmakers can.
There are many rumors in Westminster (London’s seat of power) about conservatives from the lower clergy sending letters about the loss of confidence in the prime minister to Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, the name given to the group of elected members of the broken.
On Wednesday (19), as Johnson prepared for the traditional weekly question session of the prime minister in parliament, a Conservative MP jumped to the Labor Party, that is, to the opposition.
Christian Wakeford has been openly critical of Johnson in recent days and called the scandal “embarrassing” in a Jan. 12 tweet. “How do you defend the indefensible? You can’t!” Wakeford posted.
withdrawal process
The 1922 Committee is the Conservative Party’s grassroots group in parliament, that is, elected lawmakers who are not in government as ministers or secretaries. Graham Brady is the longtime chairman of the group.
Under Conservative Party rules, if deputies want to get rid of their leader, they submit a confidential letter of distrust to the Presidency, which keeps it secret and does not reveal the number of signatories or names until a decision is made.
Cards can be canceled even after they have been delivered, so the number of cards can constantly change, increasing or decreasing.
When 15% of Conservative legislators submitted letters, a vote of confidence among all Conservative legislators is triggered.
Currently, after Wakeford’s defection, the Conservative Party has 359 MPs, which means it takes 54 letters to open a vote. Then it takes 180 votes against Johnson to remove him from office.
Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, went through this process in 2018: Representatives submitted enough letters to open a no-confidence vote, but May survived and remained in office.
On paper at least, defeating a vote of no confidence strengthens a prime minister, as another such vote cannot happen within 12 months. But in practice, going through the process, even if the prime minister wins, tends to be fatal. May stepped down as prime minister a year after winning the vote of no confidence.
a new premier
If Boris Johnson is removed from office, the Conservative Party will decide the name of his successor or successor. The act would not trigger a new national parliamentary election, which ensures that all current lawmakers retain their posts.
The current deputy prime minister is Dominic Raab, but that doesn’t mean he will automatically become prime minister if Johnson falls.
Instead, the Conservative Party would launch its own complicated process to choose a new leader, with Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss among the leading candidates.
letters sent
Only the leader of the Conservatives, Graham Brady, knows how many letters are asking for the initiation of Johnson’s withdrawal process.
Part of the reason Brady has been chairman of the 1922 Committee is his discretion – he never reveals how many letters he keeps in his safe.
But the tide of rumors in Westminster has grown a lot this week. The latest news is that an effort by Johnson’s loyal followers to quell rebellion among newly elected deputies in 2019 has gone terribly wrong, leading to a new wave of letters to the 1922 Committee.
The so-called “pork pie conspiracy”
The British press has talked a lot about speculation that MP Alicia Kearns, elected by the Rutland and Melton district, has recently organized a meeting of Conservative supporters who are unhappy with the current situation.
The congresswoman’s district is known for being home to the famous Melton Mowbray pork pie. It is probably just an odd coincidence that “pork pie”, or “pork pie” in English, is Cockney slang for “lie” – just what Boris Johnson is often accused of doing.
* Sarah Dean, Niamh Kennedy, and Amy Cassidy contributed to this story
This content was originally created in English.
original version
Reference: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
