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Greg Evans
Jun 06, 2022
Rees-Mogg's comments on Theresa May confidence vote resurface after Johnson survives
BBC
Jacob Rees-Mogg's comments on Theresa May after she survived a no confidence vote in December 2018 have resurfaced after his ally Boris Johnson also managed to survive a vote but by a worse margin.
Tory MPs voted by 211 to 148 in the secret ballot in Westminster, Conservative 1922 Committee chairman Sir Graham Brady announced. A threshold of 180 votes is all the PM needed to win the vote.
Announcing the results, Sir Graham Brady said: “Good evening. I can report as returning officer that 359 ballots were cast, no spoilt ballots, that the vote in favour of having confidence in Boris Johnson as leader was 211 votes and a vote against was 148 votes. And therefore, I can announce that the parliamentary party does have confidence in Boris Johnson.”
In the hours leading up to the vote, Rees-Mogg told Sky News: "In a democracy, one is enough. I think that the idea that there is a barrier different from the absolute barrier is false."
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At the time, when Theresa May had 117 votes against her Rees-Mogg told BBC Newsnight: This is a very bad result for the prime minister. 117 votes against. Much worse than she thought. A third of the parliamentary party. An overwhelming majority of backbenchers have voted against her."
The Tory minister's comments on the former PM have resurfaced amid the vote against Johnson with many people commenting on how poorly they have aged.
\u201cThis did not age well\u201d— Matthew Tovey \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 (@Matthew Tovey \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08) 1654547222
\u201cBoris Johnson received a higher proportion of no confidence votes tonight than Theresa May in 2018. Jacob Rees-Mogg described it as a very bad result for her and called for her resignation.\u201d— Larry the Cat (@Larry the Cat) 1654547049
\u201cWonder what Jacob Rees-Mogg makes of this result, which is proportionally far worse than May's total\u201d— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE) 1654547026
\u201cJacob Rees-Mogg pronounced \u201ca very bad result\u201d for Theresa May when 37% of her MPs voted against her in 2018\n\nTonight, 41% of Boris Johnson\u2019s MPs no longer support him\n\nI await Rees-Mogg\u2019s declaration that this is an absolute disaster for his leader.\u201d— \ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7Fat Male Model \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6#FBPE #Rejoin (@\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7Fat Male Model \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6#FBPE #Rejoin) 1654546709
\u201c148 against now and being spun as \u201cthe Prime Minister won handsomely\u2026 I hope we can draw a line under this now and move on.\u201d \nPolitics in the UK remains nothing more than a children\u2019s puppet show.\u201d— Omid Djalili (@Omid Djalili) 1654546697
Rees-Mogg added to Sky News that he had to "eat a good deal of my own words" after May won her vote.
It remains to be seen what Rees-Mogg will make of tonights result but it certainly doesn't paint a pretty picture for the prime minister.
Additional reporting from PA.
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