andrewducker: (Eightball)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2022-06-08 11:16 am

A few thoughts on what could happen next for Boris Johnson

He won the VONC. This is what I wanted, and what I predicted a few days ago when I said, over on Twitter and Facebook: Funniest outcome: enough letters go in to have a No Confidence vote against Johnson, he then wins it, and then the Conservatives catastrophically lose the two by-elections.

So, next steps are to lose the two by-elections 1 and 2 on the 23rd of June (or, at the least, suffer massive swings).

But before that we have a more interesting one - an upcoming vote on breaking international law on the Northern Ireland Protocol. 148 Conservative MPs voted against him in the no-confidence vote. It needs only 40 to do so on this bill (which is remarkably contentious) and he can't pass it.

At which point, last time around, he called a general election. Doing so again, and winning it, would absolutely cement him back into power.

The big question is - would he win it? It doesn't look like it, but Johnson might take the risk...

(My preferred outcome would be a Labour government dependent on the Lib Dems and SNP to pass things, with both of them insisting on electoral reform as essential.)