British Prime Minister Boris Johnson clung to his position Monday night after 148 of his MPs voted to oust him. The ballot exposed potentially fatal rifts within the Conservative party.
The prime minister won the support of 211 MPs. But that means that 41 percent of his party voted to get rid of him, making it an unexpectedly large rebellion against the leader.
The no-confidence vote comes amid the Partygate scandal, as well as reported public loss of trust in his leadership. It makes it the worst verdict on a sitting prime minister by their own party in recent times.
Johnson and his allies claimed the vote as a victory, but many Conservative lawmakers believe the attempted ousting is the beginning of the end of his three-year leadership.
Johnson has effectively lost his majority support in parliament with so many of the Conservative party voting against him. He is technically safe from another leadership challenge for a year under the rules of the 1922 Committee.
But former Prime Minister Theresa May was forced to leave office only six months after similarly winning a confidence ballot because she was terminally damaged from it. May won 200 votes to 117.
The proportion of MPs who voted against Johnson is greater than the votes against May in 2018, and against Margaret Thatcher in 1990. Thatcher resigned a week after the vote.
Johnson spoke after the result, insisting it was an extremely good result that would allow him to move on and focus on delivery. But rebel Conservative MPs are not on board. They said Johnson should quit for the good of the party and the country.
The scale of the rebellion means some government ministers and aides must have voted against Johnson in the secret ballot, even though they publicly remained supportive.
It shows more issues to come for the Conservative party as they grapple with internal differences.
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