British PM Boris Johnson survives no-confidence vote

LONDON – British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has won the no-confidence vote moved against him over “partygate” as a majority of Tory MPs supported him in the vote.

The premier secured the votes of 211 (or 59%) Tory MPs while 148 voted against him, depicting that his authority has weakened than before.

After winning the secret ballot, Johnson is safe from the further challenge from Conservative leadership for another year.

The UK prime minister termed his confidence vote win as "decisive".

He said that it was a "very good", "convincing" result and "an opportunity to put behind us all the stuff that the media goes on about".

The result sees the prime minister remain in office, but critics said the scale of the rebellion against him showed his authority had been weakened, with some calling on him to resign.

The votes received by Johnson are lower than the 63% secured by former Prime Minister Theresa May when she won a party confidence vote in 2018.

In his statement on Twitter, the British premier said: “We need to come together as a party and focus on what this government is doing to help people with the cost of living, to clear the COVID backlogs and to make our streets safer”.

“We will continue to unite, level up and strengthen our economy,” he said.

The 57-year-old became the first sitting premier found to have broken the law by holding parties during Covid lockdown at his official residence.