Boris Johnson survives no-confidence vote

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won a no-confidence vote with 211 members of the parliament voting in favour of the motion and 148 MPs voting against. The PM required the backing of half of the MPs votes to stay in power.

The no-confidence vote was triggered after 67 Tory MPs introduced letters of no-confidence in the prime minister, exceeding the required 54 - or 15% of the party's seats in the parliament - needed to launch the procedure. The effort was led by the backbench 1922 Committee and its leader Graham Brady, who announced the vote earlier today.

Voting was prompted by a long-lasting "Partygate" scandal that has been haunting the prime minister for the past months. The emergence of photo-backed media reports of parties held by No. 10 during the pandemic lockdowns prompted public uproar and an investigation into accountability.

The results of this probe, which was conducted by Second Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office Sue Gray and UK police, showed that at least 16 social events violating the government’s own lockdown rules were held on 12 days between May 2020 and April 2021 in the office and garden of Downing No 10. The investigation also showed that Prime Minister Boris Johnson personally attended at least eight of these illegal gatherings, in which attendees often disregarded and violated social distancing and other lockdown rules.

Speaking to parliament concerning the probe's findings, Johnson stated that he takes "full responsibility" for the notorious parties, but strongly dismissed the allegation that he had previously misled the legislative body regarding events and his part in them.