VONC Special: Boris On The Brink?

Inside Briefing with the Institute for Government

Institute for Government

News, Politics, Government

4.6 • 252 Ratings

🗓️ 7 June 2022

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With 148 votes against him, was Boris Johnson’s vote of confidence victory a Pyrrhic one? The IfG team convene to look at the unfolding civil war in the Conservative Party and Big Dog’s prospects for survival. Does Johnson’s fate really rest in the hands of just 30 waverers? Can his more controversial policies such as privatising Channel 4 survive in a new, “listening” No.10? And what can we expect from the by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton and Honiton? “What pulled Margaret Thatcher was her Cabinet telling her the game was up. For now it looks like Johnson’s Cabinet is sticking by him.” – Cath Haddon “They know there are 148 rebels. They just don’t know who they are yet.” – Alice Lilly “Whenever Johnson has come out as humble and contrite, things have tended to go wrong for him.” – Alex Thomas Presented by Bronwen Maddox with Alice Lilly, Alex Thomas and Cath Haddon. Audio production by Robin Leeburn. Inside Briefing is a Podmasters Production for the IfG. www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to this special edition of Inside Briefing, the podcast from the Institute for
0:20.0	Government. I'm Bronwyn Maddox.
0:22.4	Well, it's Tuesday morning Boris Johnson is still Prime Minister, still leader of the Conservative Party,
0:27.4	but he's endured a bruising night, about as bad as victory gets, says one headline,
0:32.5	and he's woken up some pretty grim front pages. There is some good news if you're a supporter of Boris Johnson.
0:38.3	He did win the vote of no confidence. But then it goes downhill, really. 148 Conservative MPs,
0:44.9	41% of the parliamentary vote voted against him. And however much the Prime Minister triumphed,
0:51.1	he now knows that an awful lot of his MPs want him out of the job.
0:56.1	So what does it mean for him, for the government, for the Conservative Party?
0:58.9	What happens next?
1:00.1	Joining me now in the podcast studio, we're all here, are a top trio of IFG colleagues.
1:05.6	We haven't stopped talking about all this or been off the airwaves since the vote was announced
1:09.4	yesterday morning.
1:10.3	And that is
1:11.0	Alex Thomas, Kath Haddon and Alice Lilly. Hi, everyone. Hi, Bronwyn. Hi, Bronwyn. Hello,
1:15.8	Ronwen. Great. Kath, let's start, I guess, with a historical context. How bad is this?
1:23.1	In numerical terms or percentage terms, we should say, pretty bad.
1:28.1	He is on about a par with Margaret Thatcher in 1990 when she faced a challenge from Michael Heseltine.
1:35.7	It's worse than Theresa May even in 2018 when you remember she got 37% of the party against her.
1:46.6	John Major is the one that did a lot better.
1:51.4	I can't actually remember what the figures are right now, but it was a much higher percentage when he called basically a leadership contest himself by resigning from the Conservative leadership,
1:57.9	sort of asking his opponents to put up or shut up. So it's pretty bad in those terms.
	...

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