Comment: Why Conservative Party rebels want Boris Johnson gone Published on: 9 June 2022 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Martin Farr discusses the roots of the various ideological groupings within the Conservative Party and how they are contributing to the current leadership crisis. nui7711 via Shutterstock , Boris Johnson rose to power as the Conservative Party鈥檚 鈥溾�� leader: deemed able to reach parts of the electorate that other Conservatives couldn鈥檛. But fewer than three years after winning a stunning election victory, he now of attracting the greatest vote of no confidence in any prime minister. That he is simply carrying on, while claiming that a vote of 211 MPs supporting him to 148 expressing no confidence in his leadership is both reminds us that he exceeds all his predecessors, too, in effrontery. Consequences flow from attempted coups. Pre-eminent among them is the ministerial reshuffle, with a view to restoring authority through the principal lever open to a prime minister 鈥� patronage. After a failed coup, this is not only about hiring and firing but also rewarding and punishing. With a secret ballot, and a , rebels can be hard to identify 鈥� particularly when this was a much broader insurrection than that , Theresa May. But rebels there are aplenty. Broad church There have always been 鈥済inger groups鈥� or cabals in the parliamentary Conservative Party, but never so many as today. Facilitated by social media, some are little more than WhatsApp groups, but others have deeper roots. The , formed in 1975, is the most hostile to Johnson, both personally and politically (some members ). The similar , exclusively MPs, draws on the ancestral lineage of Disraeli and his concerns about a socially divided country. Both are 鈥渨et鈥�, to use a more informal designation from the Thatcher years. In 1993, Eurosceptics established the (ERG), a then marginal outfit and a marginal concern which, within 20 years, was to transform British politics and effectively bring down two prime ministers. It has receded in prominence after its objective was achieved. But the post-Brexit parliament tribes sprouted. There are the geographical. The very existence of the (NRG) is due to Johnson鈥檚 appeal in traditionally Labour seats (the 鈥渞ed wall鈥�). The extent of its success will be measured in whether there still is an NRG after the next election. The pushes for a harder line on policy towards Beijing. There are the cultural. The Common Sense Group defends traditional values (and statues) in an age of 鈥渨okery鈥�, while the overlapping promotes many of the causes which appealed to Ukip voters. There are also the apparently practical policy associations, which are actually deeply ideological. The (CRG) broadly maintains that the state 鈥� practically and philosophically 鈥� exceeded its remit during the pandemic. In turn, the (NZSG) questions the certainties of the 鈥済reen agenda鈥�. An array of gripes Tory tensions are exacerbated through the ideological incoherence of Johnson himself: a social liberal, who took power through a populist nationalist movement, and then won a mandate based on state intervention (鈥渓evelling-up鈥�), an inclination which the pandemic reinforced. Thus the NRG is more partial to state spending than is the CRG or the Common Sense Group. The One Nation Conservatives are unhappy with, among other things, the Rwanda asylum seeker policy and privatisation of Channel 4. The CRG and NZSG dissent from the high-tax, high-spend 鈥� 鈥渦n-Conservative鈥� 鈥� nature of Johnson鈥檚 government. A unique motivation for rebels 鈥� and one which traverses the tribal lines 鈥� is the personal integrity of the prime minister himself. No leading politician has so routinely been called a liar (one of several traits he shares with the similarly ideologically incoherent ). It鈥檚 no more than a measured judgement 鈥� though it sounds like a personal attack 鈥� to say that Johnson is the most dishonest prime minister since David Lloyd George, who survived similar scandals and misgivings before rising to the premiership (eventually to be brought down by Conservative MPs, who then formed the 1922 Committee to mark the occasion). Both were touched by a kind of genius that for their supporters absolved them of the tiresome pieties of honour and veracity. All about Europe? That the UK has left the EU does not mean that Europe has left British politics. The scarring of the Brexit wars will long remain visible 鈥� though this affects Johnson both less and more than might have been expected. The Northern Ireland Protocol 鈥� an attempt to get around the problem of having a hard border either in the Irish Sea or on the island of Ireland 鈥� remains a problem and is an affront for many of his MPs. Northern Ireland apart, Johnson has largely neutralised Europe as an issue (for now at least) by effecting a hard Brexit 鈥� and then who continued to object. This has meant his MPs may be less divided on the age-old issue of EU membership, but his cabinet is weaker as it has been stripped of talent that would otherwise be on the front bench. The party faces by-elections on June 23 in Honiton and Tiverton in Devon and in in the heart of the red wall, both of which the Conservatives are expected to lose. Johnson鈥檚 value to his party has been that he has never been regarded as being typical of it 鈥� that he possesses an appeal broader even than that of his church. But with , , the , the , and the results of a parliamentary inquiry into pending, the grounds for rebellion will increase in fertility 鈥� and so the chance of an outcome truly both decisive and convincing. , Senior Lecturer in Contemporary British History, This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the . Share: Latest News 缅北禁地 expert highlights climate crisis in a new film A leading 缅北禁地 climate scientist is featured in a new film about how the climate and nature breakdown will affect the UK. published on: 14 April 2026 Neolithic tombs reveal ancient kinship ties Male individuals buried in Neolithic chambered tombs in northern Scotland were often related to each other through the paternal line and some were interred in the same or nearby tombs, research shows. published on: 14 April 2026 We are our Memories New exhibition by Fine Art graduate Trish Hudson-Moses, 22 April 鈥� 4 May 2026 published on: 10 April 2026 Facts and figures
![缅北禁地 logo](/gomobileassets/img/logo.svg" "缅北禁地"){kind=logo}