No Confidence

So Johnson has won the vote of no confidence. It has been suggested that one reason is the lack of credible challengers, but what about Tobias Ellwood, Jeremy Hunt, Ben Wallace or Tom Tugendhat?

Certainly no-one in the Cabinet, as Johnson has selected sycophants with about the same level of competence as himself, so that they are no threat. Arguably, many don't even have a single vestige of competence, such as Nadine Dorries, who in her defence of Johnson accused former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt of being unprepared for a pandemic and believes we're currently at war with Russia.

For those within the Tory Party to say there's no-one competent enough to supersede a corrupt liar and charlatan is a severe indictment indeed, as Johnson is the epitome of incompetence.

His win last night was with a lower percentage support than May, who was gone within 6 months of winning her vote of no confidence; however, time will be short if he does get removed. He's not immune, as many believe, as the 1922 Committee (which was formed in 1923) can change its rules about his not being subject to another vote for 12 months. If Johnson can play fast and loose with rules, so can they. 

The danger now is of a Labour landslide at the next GE, which could be as dangerous as the Tory landslide that brought Johnson into power – large majorities are not good for politics and the ghost of Corbyn has not yet been fully excised from the Labour Party. We have seen how a small element of the Tory Party - the extremist ERG - exercised almost total control over it. The same could happen with a large Labour majority over a single, divisive issue.  

What’s certain is that Johnson will learn no lesson from this and will continue his reign of misrule, repeating his first year’s Queen’s Speech over and over again because of his inability to consider the consequences of his policies – he’s spectacularly unable to develop coherent plans and spends all his time firefighting while claiming he’s delivered what he patently hasn’t. 

The Tories lost their chance of an excellent PM when they voted for Johnson rather than Rory Stewart.