The British government will hold a confidence vote in itself on Monday after it fiercely blocked the Labour Party’s motion earlier this week.
The unexpected move will force Conservative members of parliament to back the government and, unlike Labour’s motion, this vote will not constitute an endorsement of Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Johnson said he will step down once the governing Conservative Party chooses a new leader. But the head of the opposition, Keir Starmer, put forward a motion aimed at ousting Johnson from power.
The Labour Party’s tabling of the motion fell on deaf ears and was ignored by members of the government, who said Johnson should be left out of any confidence motion upon his decision to step down on July 7.
“We’re tabling a motion which gives the house (of Commons, lower house of parliament) the opportunity to decide if it has confidence in the government,” a spokesperson for the prime minister said.
Asked why Labour’s motion was blocked, the spokesperson said a motion of confidence in the prime minister personally was not a good use of parliamentary time and said Labour was “playing politics.”
“However, we are now upholding the underlying constitutional principle that the government of the day must always command the confidence of the house,” the spokesperson said.
The next prime minister is not expected to be announced until Sept. 5, after the Tory party set out its timetable for the battle to replace Johnson.
Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi were knocked out of the Tory leadership race after both candidates were unable to secure 30 nominations.
Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, previously considered a favorite to replace Johnson, and Former Home Secretary Sajid Javid had removed themselves from the leadership race.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is the current front-runner with the most declared backers.
Johnson, who took office in 2019, last week finally succumbed to the dozens of calls from fellow Conservatives telling him to resign.
Over 50 government ministers and aides handed in their resignations in protest of his leadership in just 48 hours.
It is the highest number of resignations any British leader had received while clinging to power.
With Post wires