As more MPs turn against Boris Johnson, how would
a vote of no confidence work?
With the chance of vote on the prime minister’s future
growing how will a vote be triggered and what is the process?
Aubrey
Allegretti
@breeallegretti
Tue 31 May
2022 19.00 BST
As more
Conservative MPs go public with their letters of no confidence in Boris
Johnson, the chance of a vote on the prime minister’s premiership grows. This
is how the process works:
How is a
vote triggered?
The rules
stipulate that 15% of Conservative MPs must submit a letter of no confidence to
Sir Graham Brady, chair of the backbench 1922 Committee, in order for a ballot
to be held.
The MPs do
not have to reveal their identity, though some will choose to go public due to
pressure from their constituents or in a bid to encourage others to do the
same.
There are
54 MPs needed to force a vote of no confidence, and they can either deposit a
letter personally to Brady’s office, ask a colleague to drop it off for him or
email it directly.
The only
person who knows how many letters have been submitted is Brady himself. Such is
the level of mistrust among Conservative MPs, several rumours have been spread
to discourage people from submitting no confidence letters.
Brady does
not – as it has been claimed – need to ring every Conservative MP who has
submitted a letter to check they are happy with their decision. Nor does he –
as others have suggested – pass a list of those who have submitted letters to
Johnson’s ministerial aides, known as parliamentary private secretaries.
There have
also been rumours that government whips have previously been posted to keep
watch outside Brady’s office, to spy on those going in and out.
What
happens if the 54 threshold is hit?
There is a
certain amount of discretion afforded to Brady, but he is expected to tell the
prime minister and then organise a private confidence vote “as soon as
practicable”.
Most MPs
agree it is not practical to hold such a ballot during recess, which ends next
Monday, and particularly not during the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee bank holiday
weekend.
In December
2018, Brady told Theresa May the threshold had been hit and a vote was held on
her premiership the following day. The speediness of the procedure was seen as
a bid to give as little time as possible to her opponents to organise against
the current government.
How is the
vote organised?
A ballot
box is being safely stored in the office of one of the 1922’s executive
members, and will be dusted off if a no confidence vote is called.
It will
probably be placed in the same room that MPs gather in every week for meetings
of the committee, on the first floor of the Palace of Westminster and at the
centre of a long corridor, overlooking the River Thames.
Throughout
the day, all Conservative MPs will be able to vote in a secret ballot. They
will be forbidden from taking any pictures inside the committee room. This is
meant to discourage party whips from demanding photographic evidence that an MP
has voted supportively, meaning that even if they are on the government
“payroll” they are able to decide freely whether to vote for or against
Johnson.
That is not
to say that supporters and opponents of the prime minister will not spend the
day frantically lobbying and counting the pledges of each MP collared to ask
how they voted.
If an MP is
away from Westminster, they can nominate a colleague to vote on their behalf as
a proxy.
How is the
result announced?
Brady will
probably do as he did in 2018, and assemble MPs and journalists in the same
parliamentary committee room where voting has taken place that day. He will
then declare that the parliamentary party does or does not have confidence in
the prime minister, and reveal the number of votes cast in both directions.
If Johnson
survives, no further confidence vote can be held by the 1922 Committee for
another year.
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