BoJo 'Urged by Allies' to Swap Sunak for Hunt to 'Reset' Premiership After No-Confidence Vote

On Monday, UK Conservative Party members voted 211 to 148 in support of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a secret ballot. Despite the scale of the rebellion against his leadership, BoJo made it clear that he won’t step down, vowing to “deliver on what the people of this country care about most”.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s allies have urged him to ditch Chancellor Rishi Sunak and offer former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt Sunak’s job as No 10 is mulling over a Cabinet reshuffle “to reset” BoJo’s premiership following his survival of the 6 June confidence vote by a narrow margin, according to the Telegraph.

The newspaper reported that the PM and a group of about 20 Tory MPs, dubbed his “Praetorian Guard”, gathered on Monday night to discuss the possibility of a speedy reshuffle, including whether to start the process within days. The lawmakers are purportedly seeking to create the so-called “dream team” to shore up Johnson’s premiership and prevent a Tory “civil war”.

Some Conservative MPs have reportedly personally urged Johnson to promote members of the 2019 Cabinet, including Hunt, into ministerial posts, seeing it as a way to encourage loyalty among the government.

In 2019, Hunt, who also served as health secretary and culture secretary, finished second in the election race and resigned after Johnson became Tory leader and UK prime minister. Hunt was subsequently elected as chairman of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee in January 2020.

The Telegraph stressed that some perceive the 55-year-old as BoJo’s most dangerous political rival from the back benches, especially after he went public with his hopes to topple Johnson by voting against him in Monday’s confidence ballot.

“Today’s decision is change or lose. I will be voting for change,” Hunt, who was an avid supporter of Britain remaining in the EU in the 2016 referendum, tweeted on Monday morning.

According to the Telegraph, promoting the ex­-foreign secretary into the government “would have the political advantage for Johnson of binding Hunt to his agenda”. On the other hand, BoJo possibly demoting Rishi Sunak would mean that the PM might “risk appearing to punish MPs who have stood by him this week” during the confidence vote, the Telegraph argued.

Tory Rebels Reportedly Ready to Go Ahead With Efforts to Oust BoJo

This follows the Guardian reporting on Tuesday that Tory rebels have pledged to continue trying to oust Johnson from office even though he had already made it plain he would not resign after Conservative MPs voted 211 to 148 to keep him as party leader and prime minister.

The newspaper reported that some of the 148 Tory MPs, or 41%, who refused to support BoJo in the confidence vote, are believed to be “implacably opposed” to Johnson’s premiership.

Those rebel lawmakers will reportedly hold the PM’s feet to the fire as the next “Partygate” probe into whether Johnson misled parliament by denying any COVID rules were breached in Downing Street “gets under way in the coming weeks”.

The report came after Johnson, who was urged by Tory MPs to resign following the 6 June ballot, stated that the government could now “move on” following a “convincing” and “decisive” result of the confidence vote. He denied allegations that he was interested in calling a snap general election to avoid being a lame duck prime minister.

“We’re going to bash on. As a result of this decision by the parliamentary party, which I welcome, we have a conclusion to something which has been dragging on for far too long and we have the ability now to unite, deliver and get on with the people’s priorities, and that is what we are going to do,” the PM added.

The confidence vote was preceded by the publication in late May of senior civil servant Sue Gray’s full report into 16 alleged No 10 COVID rule-breaking parties held in 2020 and 2021. Speaking to MPs after the document’s release, BoJo said he takes “full responsibility” for partying but denied he had ever knowingly misled them about the events.

In the report, Gray in particular wrote that “there were failures of leadership and judgement by different parts of No 10 and the Cabinet Office at different times”, and that “some of the events should not have been allowed to take place”, while other Downing Street social gatherings “should not have been allowed to develop as they did”.