With the government’s popularity plummeting, a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nevertheless garnered only 18 votes in the Knesset on Monday evening, falling far short of the necessary majority to pass in the 120-strong Knesset plenum.
The vote was boycotted by the coalition, whose heads stated earlier in the day that they would “not take part in political theater during wartime.”
He faces almost no internal criticism and on Friday he will take office for the third time as prime minister of Spain, after having managed to win an investiture vote inside parliament with 179 votes, more than the previous ones, and with broad cross-party support. If we add all the parties that have backed him — PSOE, Sumar, Catalan Republican Left (ERC), Junts, Bildu, Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Galicia Nationalist Bloc (BNG), Canaries Coalition (CC) — there are 12.6 million votes behind the new progressive government.
(10 Aug 2023)
Khan was sacked from power in April 2022 after he lost a no-confidence vote in parliament. He alleged he knew of the “cypher” while he was in office which, according to him, proved the US hatched a conspiracy with the help of his political opponents and the Pakistani military to remove him.
He later made a U-turn, saying he wants good relations with the US, but continued to blame his successor Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the military for orchestrating his removal.
(09.08.2023)
One month after the meeting with U.S. officials documented in the leaked Pakistani government document, a no-confidence vote was held in Parliament, leading to Khan’s removal from power. The vote is believed to have been organized with the backing of Pakistan’s powerful military. Since that time, Khan and his supporters have been engaged in a struggle with the military and its civilian allies, whom Khan claims engineered his removal from power at the request of the U.S.
The text of the Pakistani cable, produced from the meeting by the ambassador and transmitted to Pakistan, has not previously been published. The cable, known internally as a “cypher,” reveals both the carrots and the sticks that the State Department deployed in its push against Khan, promising warmer relations if Khan was removed, and isolation if he was not.
Various opposition parties, including left-wing bloc GroenLinks and PvdA and far-right PVV, have announced their intention to submit or support a motion of no confidence against Rutte during the parliamentary debate today. Should the motion pass, Rutte would have to step down immediately.
Rutte IV collapsed 543 days after being sworn in by the King. The Rutte III Cabinet also ended in a collapse, that one over the childcare allowance scandal in which the Tax Authority unjustly accused thousands of parents of fraud and left many in financial difficulties by revoking their benefits.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu survived a no-confidence vote in the Knesset, the country‘s parliament, amid what is possibly the largest wave of demonstrations in Israel‘s history.
Mass protests are rocking Israel, and the country‘s largest labor union announced a major strike Monday in opposition to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s months-long attempt to push through widely-derided judicial reforms that opponents say will pull the country toward an autocracy.
Instead, on Macron’s orders, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne used a controversial clause in the Constitution, Article 49.3, to pass the bill.
The Republican Party are widely supportive of Macron’s reform bill, which raises the age of retirement from sixty-two to sixty-four, and issued instructions for its sixty-one Members of Parliament to vote against the motion. But nineteen of its MPs defied orders, adding to the dissent and disorder which has swept France in recent days, in parliament and on the street.
Dismissing calls for a snap election or a referendum, he said the plan to raise France’s minimum retirement age from 62 to 64 would continue on its “democratic path” and come into force by the end of 2023.
The French president also reaffirmed his faith in Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, whose government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote triggered by Macron‘s use of special executive powers to bypass parliament.
(21.03.2023)
The first motion, which was the only one ever likely to succeed, failed thanks to the decision of the conservative Republican party not to support it.
Opposition parties said they would request a vote of no confidence in the government, which will be voted on in the coming days, possibly on Monday.
– Liz Truss dramatically resigned as Prime Minister this afternoon after lasting just 44 days in the top job
– Her close friends said they knew she was going to quit after they began receiving texts from her at 4am
– Sir Graham Brady told her later that day she had lost the party‘s support and would lose a confidence vote
Liz Truss was facing a revolt by Tory MPs opposed to fracking on Wednesday despite whips saying a crunch Commons vote was a “confidence motion in the Government”.
At least three MPs signalled that they would not back the Government in the showdown vote, including the Prime Minister’s net-zero tsar Chris Skidmore, Conservative MP for Kingswood.
The unnamed member of the parliamentary Conservative party told Bloomberg political editor Kitty Donaldson that they had handed in their letter to the 1922 committee on Sunday night.
While Tory MPs say letters have been going in for more than a week, this may be the first report of an MP personally admitting they have sent one themself.
Current rules give Liz Truss until next September before she can be ousted – but these could be changed by MPs.
„Sometimes even the hearts of central bankers get used,“ he quipped, referring to a recent joke he made about a transplant recipient preferring the heart of a central banker to that of another donor because it had ‚never been used‘.
„Thank you for all the work done in this period“.
(06.06.2022)
What about the will of the people?
New snap poll from @OpiniumResearch shows 59% think Tory MPs should vote to remove Johnson as leader today
Lord Hague, the former leader of the Conservative Party, said Mr Johnson is now facing a „big problem“ because it „isn’t viable actually when more than 40 per cent of your party vote against you“.
He told Times Radio: “That is very difficult then to proceed as party leader in the long term. This is like trying to drive along the M1 with two flat tyres. You can say you are at the steering wheel but is it really viable? You are not going to get to the end of the motorway.”
– Boris Johnson is setting out to revive his premiership after a hugely damaging confidence vote last night
– His allies are begging the 148 MPs who voted against the PM to ‚back down‘ after his slim victory yesterday
– One loyalist MP described Monday as ‚the first day of a Tory civil war‘ with a double by-election looming
– The PM‘s allies have insisted he will ‚fight his corner‘ amid warnings that an early general election is possible
– Backbench chief Sir Graham Brady called a full vote after receiving 54 letters from MPs calling for one
Some big names may quit during the day, because many cannot accept the result. If you think Johnson is a disaster on Monday morning, you’re not going to believe he’s a genius on Monday evening, and no one would believe you if you said so.
What about the will of the people?
New snap poll from @OpiniumResearch shows 59% think Tory MPs should vote to remove Johnson as leader today
Big names include billionaire JCB boss Lord Bamford, property magnate Sir Tony Gallagher and Carphone Wearhouse founder David Ross.
Other names include multimillionaire financier Howard Shore and mega rich Simon Rueben – who alongside brother David is worth £16bn.
Sir Graham said in a statement: “The threshold of 15 per cent of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.
“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 TODAY MONDAY 6th JUNE — details to be confirmed.
– Boris Johnson is facing a confidence vote at 6pm tonight after Tories wrote letters to the 1922 committee
– The PM‘s allies have insisted he will ‚fight his corner‘ amid warnings that an early general election is possible
– Backbench chief Sir Graham Brady calls a full vote when he receives 54 letters from MPs asking for one
(April 8, 2022)
Pakistan’s military has outsized power for a country conceived as a democracy. There have been three successful military coups. When Khan became prime minister, it was only the second time since Pakistan achieved independence in 1947 that a civilian administration had transferred power to another. Even when elected governments have ruled, the military, especially the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, has played a forceful role.
(…)
Khan, who has been critical of the U.S. while seeking better relations with Russia and China, has said he would continue to pursue an “independent” foreign policy. His opponents have vowed to improve ties with the U.S. and Europe if they win.
According to BBC Urdu, “two uninvited guests” reached the Prime Minister’s House, which was blanketed in extraordinary security, by helicopter on Saturday night and met Khan in private for about 15 minutes. An hour before this meeting, Khan had ordered the removal of a senior official who was at the meeting, the report said.
However, an official notification was not issued by the defence ministry for dismissing this senior official and appointing his successor, “thus thwarting the Prime Minister’s House’s attempt at a ‘revolutionary’ change”, the report said
Qureshi talked major foreign policy issues, especially the alleged regime change being plotted by the US in Pakistan.
“Today Pakistan is standing at a historic juncture and the people need to decide whether they want to live in an independent state or become slaves [to the West],” the 65-year-old politician said, acknowledging that today might be his last day as the foreign minister of Pakistan.
The no-confidence motion, which required 172 votes in the 342-seat parliament to pass, was supported by 174 lawmakers.
The assembly will now appoint a new prime minister.
That person will be able to hold power until October 2023 when the next election is due to be held.
More than 100 Conservative MPs could turn against Boris Johnson if his leadership is put to a confidence vote, i has established.
The Prime Minister would still technically win the ballot of 360 Tory MPs as he only needs a majority of one to survive, but he would be severely wounded by the scale of the rebellion, which would go far beyond the current public dissent by backbenchers against his leadership.
– Some Cabinet ministers believe ‚it feels like the end‘ for Mr Johnson‘s premiership because of Partygate chaos
– Downing Street suffered a day of chaos yesterday as four of Mr Johnson‘s most senior aides opted to resign
– Furious Conservative MPs have warned Mr Johnson that he must ‚shape up or ship out‘ amid mounting fur
(…)
Commissioner Cressida Dick said they were looking into „potential breaches of Covid-19 regulations“ in Downing Street and Whitehall since 2020.
The statements, described by one source as “extremely damning”, are expected to form a key part of Ms Gray’s report, which is due to be published within days.
The senior civil servant has also spoken to the Prime Minister, civil servants and political advisers, and accessed security pass logs and even Boris Johnson’s official diary.
Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s former chief aide turned hostile adversary, will be interviewed by Ms Gray on Monday, according to report
Senior Conservative William Wragg sensationally revealed that he had received reports of Johnson loyalists threatening to place smear stories in the press about Tories considering declarations of no confidence in the prime minister.
And he said that MPs had told him of warnings that investment in their constituencies would be at risk if they failed to back Mr Johnson in battle to save his political life.
The British PM is discovering that his supporters are not quite as loyal as Netanyahu‘s
Tory peer Ruth Davidson, who successfully campaigned against Scottish independence in 2014 and quit frontline politics five years later, said the Prime Minister is in a ‘perilous situation’ ahead of Sue Gray’s report into the lockdown party scandal.
In an interview with The Times, the former MSP said that she would have already submitted her letter of no-confidence in Mr Johnson to the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers if she were a Member of Parliament.
She also warned that Mr Johnson’s authority was teetering in part because of a growing ‘fatigue’ within the party ‘for the amount of drama that has been emanating from No10’ over allegations of lockdown-busting gatherings across government.
Scotland Yard will meet with a leading rebel Conservative to discuss claims of threats and blackmail of backbenchers by government whips early next week, The Telegraph can disclose.
A detective from the Metropolitan Police will meet with William Wragg, a senior Tory MP who first raised the concerns, to discuss the allegations, including threats to withdraw investments from constituents.
“It is illegal. We are meant to operate as MPs without fear or favour. The allocation of taxpayer funding to constituencies should be according to need, not according to the need to keep the prime minister in his job.”
He described the government’s levelling up fund as “an open opportunity for government ministers to corruptly hand out money to some MPs and not to others”.
William Wragg, the chairman of a scrutiny committee, claimed several Tories who oppose Boris Johnson had been subjected to „pressures and intimidation“ in the wake of the Downing Street party scandal.
Downing Street staff, special advisers and government ministers had sought to encourage „embarrassing“ stories in the media about those who no longer back the Johnson premiership, Mr Wragg alleged.
In an interview with the Telegraph, he said: „Boris will not leave Number 10 unless he‘s dragged out kicking and screaming.
Mr Davis‘s criticisms and Mr Wakeford‘s defection come as Mr Johnson fights to save his premiership after admitting he attended a Downing Street garden party during the first lockdown.
Reflecting on his decision to publically criticise the Prime Minister, Mr Davis said: „I‘ve just made myself the most unpopular person in the Tory party. Well, the second most unpopular.
The real kicker came this week when he said that he expected someone else to tell him whether the ‘bring your own booze’ garden party on 20 May 2020 was within the rules or not. At the height of strict lockdown. When it was illegal to meet more than one person outdoors. To say he takes the rest of us for fools is to put it mildly.
To make his own decision about whether Britain should leave the EU, Boris Johnson drafted two different columns for the Daily Telegraph: one for, one against.
By this means, he hoped to find out which case was the better, perhaps taking his cue from Auden: “How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
I will be more economical, and put the case for and against the Prime Minister in a single article. Since this is ConservativeHome, the conservative case – in the sense of hanging on to what we’ve got – will get the last word.
There were signs last night of a dying down of the plot — named after more than a dozen MPs met in the office of Alicia Kearns, whose Rutland and Melton seat is the home of pork pie making.
The rebels were still short of gathering the 54 letters needed to be sent to backbench 1922 committee chairman Sir Graham Brady in order to trigger a vote of no confidence in the PM.
A Tory leadership challenge would be triggered if 15 per cent of Tory MPs write to the chairman of the powerful 1922 Committee saying they no longer have confidence in Mr Johnson.
There were 360 Tory MPs – before Christian Wakeford defected to Labour – meaning that 54 need to submit a letter to prompt a confidence vote.
The 1922 Committee keeps the number who have submitted letters a closely guarded secret, but MPs are free to make public if they have done so.
Prime Minister‘s Question Time, also referred to as PMQs, takes place every Wednesday the House of Commons sits. It gives MPs the chance to put questions to the Prime Minister.
The former Brexit secretary said: “I expect my leaders to shoulder the responsibility for the actions they take. Yesterday he did the opposite of that. So I will remind him of a quotation which may be familiar to his ear, Leopold Amery to Neville Chamberlain: ‘You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. In the name of God, go.’”
Details of ‘pork pie plot’ among Tories first elected in 2019 emerge as PM prepares to drop work from home guidance and Covid passports