If only they had waited until today. Had Tory MPs cleared the threshold for a confidence vote in Boris Johnson this morning – amid the smouldering embers of two blazing by-election defeats – rather than earlier in the month, then he would surely be toast.
As it is, all that the Prime Minister’s many critics in the Conservative parliamentary party can do is seethe and wait a while for another opportunity to topple him.
As someone determined to continue in office, Johnson is able to do so unchallenged until 6 June, 2023, absent of an emergency change in 1922 Committee rules. Some Tory MPs will now push for such a change. Indeed 1922 Executive member Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown has already gone public with the suggestion that there will be an imminent discussion about the case for it.
A wiser course would be to leave the current rule in place but start engaging in some prudent succession planning.
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