Croydon’s Tory MP Chris Philip defends Boris Johnson

Chris Philp, the MP for Croydon South, praised the prime minister’s record and said he “deserves support”.

The Conservative MP and parliamentary under-secretary pledged his public support for Mr Johnson ahead of Monday evening’s vote of confidence which saw more than 40 per cent of Tory MPs vote “no confidence” in the prime minister from office.

The vote was held after the threshold of 54 letters calling for new leadership were met.

In the vote, Johnson was backed by 211 Conservative MPs, while 148 voted against him.

This means he will remain the leader of the party and the UK. But former prime ministers have been seriously wounded by such votes in the past.

In a series of tweets just before the vote took place, Mr Philp, who is the minister for technology, said: “As a four time proven election winner against the odds (London in 2008 and 2012, 2016 referendum and 2019 general election) who has also delivered a world-leading Covid vaccine programme, world-leading support to Ukraine, the lowest unemployment since 1974, record NHS spending and 13,000 of 20,000 extra Police Officers hired already.

"Boris Johnson deserves support today and he will have mine.”

In the neighbouring Carshalton and Wallington seat, fellow Conservative MP Elliot Colburn submitted a letter of no confidence in the Prime Minister on May 30.

The Tory MP for Wimbledon Stephen Hammond said he “cannot and will not defend the indefensible” in the wake of the Sue Gray report.

Under party rules, a leader who wins a confidence vote is safe from another challenge for 12 months.

The Partygate scandal and release of Sue Gray’s report prompted a number of Tory MPs to come out against Johnson.

Under Theresa May’s leadership the 1922 Committee considered changing the rules to allow a second confidence vote sooner.

So, it is possible there could be calls for a change of rules to allow another vote on the Prime Minister’s future.