the party will have confidence in the leadership or not have confidence in the leadership. that s the question that will be before my colleagues today for another year. yellow if he survives, can you confirm yellow if he survives, can you confirm he yellow if he survives, can you confirm he is yellow if he survives, can you confirm he is safe yellow if he survives, can you confirm he is safe for- yellow if he survives, can you confirm he is safe for anotheri yellow if he survives, can you - confirm he is safe for another year? technically it s possible for rules to be changed, but the rule at present is that there would be a year of a period of grace. that was sir graham brady making that announcement in the last hour. let s look again in detail at how conservative mps initiated this leadership challenge. at least 5a of the 359 conservative mps in the commons, that s15%, have now written letters of no confidence to sir graham brady, the chairman of the party s 1922 committee, a
and when was the threshold passed? it s slightly complicated because some colleagues had asked specifically that it should not be until the end of the jubilee celebrations. so did some of them post date their letters so as not to interrupt the jubilee? i think that s not a bad description of what was taking place, and that s when the threshold was breached. therefore, we reach the point where i could communicate with the prime minister yesterday, which i did. and as i said, he agreed with me that we should conduct the vote as quickly as we reasonably can. will the prime minister have - a chance to address the committee? it s always an open invitation to the prime minister to come and speak to the committee. so if he wishes to, we will arrange that meeting this afternoon. have you put one in yourself, a letter? i i m not going to answer that question, but i think technically it would be possible, but it would be a slightly odd thing to do. are you surprised at the speed -
in a new leadership election. if mps vote in support, he can stay as party leader and prime minister, and no new vote can be triggered for 12 months. sirgraham sir graham brady sirgraham brady did sir graham brady did acknowledge that you may not necessarily be safe if he survives the vote, that it is possible for the rules to be changed. a spokesperson for mr johnson s officers he welcomes an opportunity to make its case to mps. the former treasury ministerjesse norman this morning said he no longer has confidence in the prime minster and has submitted a letter of no confidence to the chair of the 1922 committee. mr norman published a letter to borisjohnson on twitter, setting out his reasons for withdrawing support, after backing the prime ministerfor 15 years.