Breaking: Result announced after Boris Johnson confidence vote as Hitchin MP declares support for PM

The result has been announced after Conservative MPs took part in the confidence vote on Boris Johnson.

Tory MPs - including Hitchin's Bim Afolami who declared his support for Johnson only a matter of minutes before the ballot opened at 6pm tonight (Monday, June 6) voted to keep the 58-year-old Eton educated leader in charge.

The vote came after a total of at least 54 Conservative MPs handed in letters of no confidence in their leader before and over the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend - triggering the contest.

However, despite the Partygate scandal and the cost of living crisis the beleaguered Johnson survived to fight another day - for now.

With 359 ballots cast among Conservative MPs including MP Mr Afolami, 211 Tory MPs came out in favour of Johnson, with 148 registering no confidence in their leader. A majority of 63 - meaning 41 per cent of Tory MPs have no confidence in Johnson.

Earlier, Hitchin Liberal Democrats called on Mr Afolami to put constituents ahead of career and remove the Prime Minister in the crucial confidence vote. While, Labour's 2019 Hitchin candidate Kay Tart urged our town's Parliamentarian to get rid of Johnson if he had a shred of integrity.

The result also means the PM has lost the support of a larger proportion of the parliamentary party than Theresa May did when she faced a no-confidence vote in 2018 - 59% of the parliamentary party – a smaller proportion than the 63% she secured. Within eight months of that result, May was out.

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