In comments that would risk further alienating Tory lawmakers, they also insisted that the results would make no difference to Mr Johnson’s position as Conservative leader, as they had now been “honored”. Opponents of the prime minister responded by denouncing what they said was a “desperate attempt to divert”. Just hours after Mr Johnson won a landslide victory this week, critics warned the prime minister he was on loan and faced a major election test on June 23. Earlier, in an 11-hour effort to save his job, Mr Johnson had promised Tory MPs that if they stuck with him, he would win again for the party. However, many MPs fear that the public reaction to the Partygate scandal means that Mr. Johnson is now an electoral official who will lose their seats in the next election. They expect this to become clear when the party loses two major by-elections in opposite parts of England this month. Just 24 hours before it was confirmed that Mr Johnson would face a no-confidence vote last week, a sentencing poll showed the Tories on the verge of a landslide defeat in the Wakefield by-elections, 20 points behind the Labor Party. The latest controversy erupted after Johnson’s pre-election visit to Devon ahead of the upcoming by-elections in Tiverton and Honiton, which was sparked by former Tory MP Neil Paris admitting to having watched pornography in the Commons. The Liberal Democrats hope to overthrow the current majority of 24,000 Tories in a major upheaval. During the same visit, Mr Johnson campaigned in Cornwall, where he again tried to draw a line under his prime minister’s most tumultuous week, stressing his desire to increase home ownership. However, even when appearing at the Royal Cornwall Show in Wadebridge, a Conservative MP warned that the party was suffering from “complacency” and “exhaustion”. A day after Mr Johnson’s speech, which was designed to outline political ideas in an effort to retain his prime ministership, Andrew Bowie, a Tory MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, wrote on the Conservative Home website: “Where is the big idea?” … What is the offer in the country? ». A minister and ally of Mr Johnson said the by-election result was now “honored”, adding that it would not be an opportunity for the prime minister to prove he could still win the election because the rebels had “poisoned the well”. “Did they vote of confidence in the prime minister basically two weeks before the vote and then do they expect the people to come out and vote Conservatives? As if they have not seen all the attacks on the Conservative leader by his own MPs? “They have completely poisoned the well.” He added: “[Mr Johnson] will win again. But it is not that. “What did they think they were doing, voting in disbelief at this stage in two election campaigns?” A top rebel has accused Johnson’s allies of “a more blatant and desperate attempt to divert.” Another critic of Mr Johnson, Tory MP Sir Roger Gale, said: “They would say that, wouldn’t they? The polls in the by-elections were creepy before the vote of no confidence in the prime minister. And they were disgusting because of the prime minister’s behavior. Yes, of course they will try to blame anyone but themselves. “This is an administration that refuses.”
