Boris Survives As 148 MPs Make Their Mark

M.E.N. Westminster Editor Boris Johnson has clung on to power for at least another year after Tory rebels failed in their bid to oust the embattled Prime Minister.

- Dan O'donoghue

In a crunch confidence vote last night, Conservative MPs backed Mr Johnson by 211 to 148 votes.

Despite fairing worse than Theresa May in her 2018 confidence vote, allies of the Prime Minister said he now intended to continue in office and "focus on the key issues facing both the UK and the world."

The vote came after a last-ditch plea by Mr Johnson to keep his job, with backbenchers crammed in a small House of Commons room to hear the Prime Minister's pitch.

Mr Johnson is understood to have told MPs: "The people in this room won the biggest electoral victory for the Conservatives for 40 years under my leadership and if you don't believe that we can come back from our current position, and win again then you haven't looked at my own record or the record of this party."

The M.E.N. has been told that Mr Johnson citied his "achievements" on Brexit and the vaccine rollout and said he was determined to deliver on the Government's levelling up agenda.

He also warned them that Tory splits risked the "utter disaster" of Sir Keir Starmer's Labour entering Downing Street, propped up by the SNP.