UK PM Johnson survives confidence vote
London, Jun 7 (PTI) Embattled British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has narrowly survived a vote of confidence by his fellow Conservative Party lawmakers against his leadership, a ballot that has left his authority weakened and exposed rifts within his party.
Some 211 MPs voted for the prime minister, compared to 148 votes against - a majority of 63.
The vote on Monday night rounded off a frenzied day of political high drama and speculation as Johnson, 57, made personal pleas to his party backbenchers to keep their faith in him as Prime Minister, despite the bruising partygate scandal of COVID law-breaking parties at Downing Street and across government offices.
Johnson insisted that the result of the vote was decisively in his favour - a 58.8 per cent for versus 41.2 per cent against.
That figure led to his critics branding it as a damaging outcome for his long-term future as the party leader, while his supporters point out he has the backing of a majority of his party.
"I think this is a very good result for politics and for the country," said Johnson, in reaction to the ballot.
"Just in this sense I think it's a convincing result, a decisive result and what it means is that as a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people. I've got a far bigger mandate from my own parliamentary colleagues for instance than I had in 2019, he declared.
The vote is held as a secret ballot, with 180 being the cut off for Johnson to win the challenge given the halfway mark of the Tory parliamentary party membership of 359 if abstentions are not taken into account.
His allies had been keen to stress that a victory in the contest, even by just one vote, would put a rest to an issue that has overshadowed the government's focus on other pressing political concerns.
"Tonight is a chance to end months of speculation and allow the government to draw a line and move on, delivering on the people's priorities," Downing Street said in a statement.
"The PM welcomes the opportunity to make his case to MPs and will remind them that when they're united and focused on the issues that matter to voters there is no more formidable political force," it said.
The ballot came as Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs, declared that he had received the requisite 54 letters of no-confidence to trigger the vote.
Under the current Conservative Party rules, Johnson is now safe from a backbench challenge for at least 12 months.
But the political consensus is that he is by no means home safe, with two important by-elections looming on June 23 and a big defeat in those could be taken as a public referendum against his leadership and keep the discontent on the backbenches alive.
In many ways, the clock is still ticking on Johnson's leadership as his hold on the party has been visibly shaken.
In the case of Johnson's predecessor at Downing Street, Theresa May, a victory in a no-confidence vote back in 2018 did not prevent her forced exit a few months later to make way for him.
While backbench anger has grown since Sue Gray published her official report into lockdown parties within government offices last month, the Cabinet had largely rallied to Johnson's side including Indian-origin Chancellor and the potential frontrunner for the top job Rishi Sunak.
The PM has won the confidence vote and now it's time to move forward. Tomorrow we get back to work, growing the economy and delivering better public services," Sunak tweeted on Monday night.
Ahead of the vote, Johnson wrote to his backbenchers to drum up their support and also addressed them privately a few hours before the ballot took place.
The frontrunner in the backbench rebellion was former UK Foreign and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, who had called on the party to vote for change in the secret ballot.
But for now, Johnson has been successful in holding on to his position as party leader and UK Prime Minister.
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Iran reimposes restrictions on Strait of Hormuz, accusing US of violating deal to reopen it
Cairo (AP): Iran swiftly reversed course on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, reimposing restrictions on the critical waterway on Saturday after the US said it would not end its blockade of Iran-linked shipping.
Iran's joint military command said on Saturday that “control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state ... under strict management and control of the armed forces.” It warned that it would continue to block transit through the strait as long as the US blockade of Iranian ports remained in effect.
The announcement came the morning after US President Donald Trump said that even after Iran announced the strait's reopening on Friday, the American blockade “will remain in full force” until Tehran reaches a deal with the US, including on its nuclear programme.
The conflict over the chokepoint threatened to deepen the energy crisis roiling the global economy after oil prices began to fall again on Friday on hopes the US and Iran were drawing closer to an agreement. Roughly one-fifth of the world's oil passes through the strait, and further limits would squeeze already constrained supply, driving prices higher once again.
Control over the strait has proven to be one of Iran's main points of leverage and prompted the United States to deploy forces and initiate a blockade on Iranian ports as part of an effort to force Iran to accept a Pakistan-brokered ceasefire to end almost seven weeks of war that has raged between Israel, the US and Iran.
Iran said it fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial vessels after a 10-day truce was announced between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon. But after Trump said the blockade would continue, top Iranian officials said his announcement violated last week's ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US and warned the strait would not stay open if the US blockade remained in effect.
A data firm, Kpler, said movement through the strait remained confined to corridors requiring Iran's approval.
US forces have sent 21 ships back to Iran since the blockade began on Monday, US Central Command said on X.
Truce in Lebanon could help US-Iran peace efforts
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The ceasefire in Lebanon could clear one major obstacle to an agreement. But it was unclear to what extent Hezbollah would abide by a deal it did not play a role in negotiating, and which will leave Israeli troops occupying a stretch of southern Lebanon.
Trump said in another post that Israel is “prohibited” by the US from further strikes on Lebanon and that “enough is enough” in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
The State Department said the prohibition applies only to offensive attacks and not to actions taken in self-defence.
Shortly before Trump's post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel agreed to the ceasefire in Lebanon “at the request of my friend President Trump,” but that the campaign against Hezbollah is not complete.
He claimed Israel had destroyed about 90 per cent of Hezbollah's missile and rocket stockpiles and added that Israeli forces “have not finished yet” with the dismantling of the group.
In Beirut, displaced families began moving toward southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs despite warnings by officials not to return to their homes until it became clear whether the ceasefire would hold.
The Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon reported sporadic artillery shelling in some parts of southern Lebanon in the hours after the ceasefire took effect.
An end to Israel's war with Hezbollah was a key demand of Iranian negotiators, who previously accused Israel of breaking last week's ceasefire with strikes on Lebanon. Israel had said that the deal did not cover Lebanon.
The fighting has killed at least 3,000 people in Iran, more than 2,290 in Lebanon, 23 in Israel and more than a dozen in Gulf Arab states. Thirteen US service members have also been killed.
