Lord Marland, a former assistant to Boris Johnson, said the Prime Minister was “rattled” by Monday’s confidence vote but “committed to deliver an agenda for the British people.”
Boris Johnson has been left ‘rattled’ and ‘chastened’ by the outcome of a vote of confidence in his leadership, according to an ally and former aide, but remains motivated to achieve an agenda for the British people.
Former Johnson assistant Lord Marland has argued that the Prime Minister needs to “rediscover” his “X-Factor” and promote measures that appeal to the Conservative party.
Allies are urging Boris to offer the role of Chancellor to key challenger Jeremy Hunt in order to stabilize his leadership and cease party infighting, according to the Telegraph.
Hunt’s supporter, meanwhile, claims that the Prime Minister is still in’very rough waters’ following this week’s events in Westminster.
Despite the Prime Minister’s triumph in Monday’s election, 148 Conservative MPs expressed their dissatisfaction with his leadership.
The vote came as a result of an internal squabble that was mostly focused on the Partygate affair and its ramifications.
Johnson stated ‘things are a bit quieter in Westminster’ and’relatively serene’ last night at an event commemorating the Falklands War.
However, the number of renegade Tories was more than Boris’s supporters had anticipated, leaving the PM unnerved and requiring him to’rediscover’ his ‘X-factor,’ according to a former adviser.
‘Of course he’s rattled,’ said former adviser and Conservative Treasurer Ord Marland on BBC Newsnight. I saw him this afternoon, and he seemed really shaken.
‘But I was struck by firstly how chastened he was, and secondly how determined he is to deliver an agenda for the British people, in terms of dealing with food security, dealing with energy security which are going to be the two looming crises.
‘And of course his performance on Ukraine has been excellent, and I think we’ll see more of that.’
‘I think Boris Johnson has got that X factor. He’s got to rediscover it. He’s got to come out with a series of policies which appeal to the Conservative party. On the one hand, he’s got to rebuild the Conservative party in alliance with him.
‘And secondly those policies that are in the best interests of the country, to solve the crises which he has inherited – food supply, those issues.’
However, a close supporter of Jeremy Hunt cautioned Wednesday that the fight to topple Boris Johnson was far from done.
Mr Hunt’s failed leadership candidacy in 2019 was led by Philip Dunne, who claimed that the subject of who will lead the party into the next election was still open.
Despite Mr Johnson’s success in the confidence vote, Mr Dunne stated the Prime Minister was in “very turbulent waters” and predicted more attempts to undermine him.
Last night, it was claimed that some Tory rebels could use ‘vote strikes’ to bring the government to a halt.
They are reportedly threatening to vote no on important pieces of legislation that they would otherwise be forced to support.
It was even suggested that the action could include voting no on a bill that would overturn elements of the Northern Ireland protocol, which is set to be published in the coming days.
Some Tory MPs who voted against Johnson yesterday stated they had no choice but to accept the result of the confidence vote.
However, Mr. Dunne, a Ludlow MP who voted against the Prime Minister, stated that the subject was not yet resolved.
‘I took the judgment that it would be preferable to provide the opportunity for honesty, for a new vision for the party, and for a new degree of competence at the heart of government,’ he told BBC Radio Shropshire.
‘It’s not going to happen for now, but we’ll have to see what happens in the coming weeks and months. This is not over.’
The former minister added that Mr Johnson had ‘some very difficult challenges ahead’, including by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton at the end of this month, and the privileges committee investigation into whether he misled parliament over Partygate.
‘We’ve got some very tricky conditions ahead through the economy, challenges with the Northern Irish protocol to resolve,’ he said.
‘There are some very choppy waters ahead and they’d be difficult to navigate for anyone.’
‘We do need to come together and we need to find a means to do it, whether it’s under the Prime Minister or someone else,’ he continued, casting doubt on Mr Johnson’s ability to unite the party.
‘I wanted to see a change, but I accept the decision that my colleagues by a majority of over 60 wanted to keep the Prime Minister – basically saying that we should forgive the sins of the lockdown period and move on,’ Nigel Mills, Amber Valley MP, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One.
‘I believe that is the best way for the party, the government, and the country right now.’ We have a number of critical crises that need to be addressed, and we should support the government in doing so.
‘Now that we’ve chosen to forgive and move on, we need to persuade the rest of the country to do the same.’ ‘It’s not what I wanted to happen, but it’s what happened.’
‘You can’t have a scenario where people refuse to accept the decision every time they lose a vote,’ said Philip Davies, the Tory MP for Shipley in West Yorkshire. We saw it with Brexit, and I was against people refusing to accept it, and I’m not going to make the same mistake they did.’
‘All of us should rally behind him and acknowledge that he won the vote,’ Mr Davies said when asked how Mr Johnson would be able to continue to govern with so many MPs expressing disapproval of his leadership.
Following the failed attempt to remove Mr Johnson, Mr Hunt was deafeningly quiet yesterday.
He had broken cover to call for the Prime Minister’s removal from office before of the confidence vote on Monday.
He told Conservative MPs that unless they act, the party would lose the next election.
‘It’s either change or lose.’ ‘I’ll be voting for change,’ he said on Twitter.
His comments come just three weeks after he said a leadership election was not ‘the right time.’
‘Britain has been the most robust member of the Western alliance in the face of the first major war in Europe in our lifetimes, and I believe the only person who would rejoice if we had a hiatus of several months in the leadership in Britain would be Vladimir Putin,’ Mr Hunt said in an interview on the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme on May 15.
Mr Hunt was accompanied by Mr Dunne during the confidence vote on Monday.
In January 2018, he was fired from his position as a junior minister, a day after suggesting that overloaded hospitals with no beds may utilize seats instead.
He was chastised last November after it was revealed that he had campaigned for increased military spending without disclosing his £425-an-hour work with an aerospace company.