Boris Johnson has been rejected and should leave No 10, says William Hague

'No individual in politics matters more than the health of our democracy,' Hague writes in 'The Times'

Former Conservatives leader William Hague. Reuters

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has experienced a “greater level of rejection” than any of his predecessors and should quit the premiership, former Conservative leader Lord William Hague has said.

Mr Johnson has been left wounded after Tory MPs voted by 211 to 148 for him to remain as party leader in a no-confidence ballot.

“While Johnson has survived the night, the damage done to his premiership is severe,” Mr Hague wrote in The Times.

“Words have been said that cannot be retracted, reports published that cannot be erased, and votes have been cast that show a greater level of rejection than any Tory leader has ever endured and survived.

“Deep inside, he should recognise that, and turn his mind to getting out in a way that spares party and country such agonies and uncertainties.”

When Theresa May faced a confidence vote in 2018, she secured the support of 63 per cent of her MPs but was still forced out within six months.

Mr Johnson had 41 per cent of his MPs vote against him.

But he said: “I think it’s an extremely good, positive, conclusive, decisive result which enables us to move on, to unite and to focus on delivery and that is exactly what we are going to do.”

Mr Johnson rejected the assertion that he was now a lame duck prime minister who needed to call a snap election to secure a new mandate from the public, insisting he was focused on the public’s priorities.

Mr Hague said he did not face a confidence vote while leader of the opposition from 1997 to 2001, but he “would have regarded my position as completely untenable if more than a third of my MPs had ever voted against me”.

“The nature of this particular revolt makes it qualitatively as well as quantitatively devastating,” he wrote.

“A fairly narrow victory for Boris Johnson is not the defeat of a rival faction, or the squashing of an alternative candidate, but rather the fending-off of a gathering feeling of hopelessness.

“It is less likely to prove a turning point than a way marker on an exhausting road to further crises of confidence.

“That is the worst possible result from the Conservative Party’s point of view. Logically, they should either reconcile themselves to Johnson and get behind him, or decisively eject him and move on to a new leader.

"It does not seem they have done either.”

The ballot was sparked after at least 54 MPs, or 15 per cent of the party’s representatives in the House of Commons, formally indicated they had no confidence in Mr Johnson.

He could suffer further blows in two key by-elections in Wakefield and Tiverton, and Honiton on June 23.

“No individual in politics matters more than the health of our democracy,” Mr Hague wrote.

“That health depends on voters having faith in the integrity of leaders even if they disagree with them, respect for how government is conducted, and a competitive choice at a future election.

“The votes just cast show that a very large part of the Conservative Party cannot see Johnson providing that.”