The parliamentary vote is being held on Johnson’s 59th birthday as the wounded former leader ponders his next move, with allies predicting a future return to the electoral fray.

It also comes at a time of mounting political problems for Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government as stubbornly high inflation and constantly rising interest rates inflict economic pain on voters.

The populist architect of Brexit, Johnson led the Conservative party to a landslide victory at the last general election in December 2019.

But he was forced to quit as prime minister last July due to Partygate and a string of other scandals.

Johnson has rejected the report by parliament’s Privileges Committee, claiming he has been the victim of a stitch-up by political opponents and a “kangaroo court”.

The committee in a scathing 106-page report on Thursday found him guilty of “repeated contempts (of parliament) and… seeking to undermine the parliamentary process”.

“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the prime minister, the most senior member of the government,” the report said, adding there was “no precedent for a prime minister having been found to have deliberately misled the house”.

Even as the vote looked set to draw a line under the Partygate scandal, another video emerged Sunday of Tory party officials partying in December 2020 during lockdown.

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove apologised for the Covid rule breach at a time when the public was banned from socialising or meeting loved ones.

He told the BBC the footage was “terrible” and “indefensible”.

Johnson could have faced a 90-day suspension and the humiliation of having to run for re-election in his constituency had he not quit as a lawmaker on June 9 after receiving an advance copy of the report.

A few of his close allies are expected to vote against the report, but they are said to be unconcerned about the recommended sanction of removing his parliamentary pass.

Johnson has reportedly privately urged supporters not to vote against the report, arguing the sanctions have no practical effect.

Conservative MP and Johnson loyalist Jacob Rees-Mogg predicted that the ex-premier might eventually stage a comeback.

“Perhaps, after the next election, Boris Johnson will return to the fray with a new electoral mandate,” he wrote Saturday in the right-leaning Daily Telegraph.

“His undimmed ebullience and joie de vivre, with a renewed sympathy from the electorate, many of whom think the privilege committee over-egged its pudding, leave him as a powerful force in politics,” he added.

Liz Truss, who briefly succeeded Johnson as prime minister last September, said on Thursday she would “never, ever, ever write Boris off”.

“I am sure we will hear more from him,” she said, adding that she viewed the proposed blocking of his parliamentary pass as “very harsh”.

Under-fire Sunak is now facing four potential by-elections — three linked to the Johnson fall-out.

These will give voters an opportunity to voice discontent over the government’s failure to tame inflation and the cost of living crisis.

While MPs have been caught up in the Johnson affair, commentators have repeatedly warned of a “mortgage time bomb” due to interest rates hikes that show no sign of ending.

Former Conservative minister Justine Greening told the BBC on Sunday it would be easier to persuade the public that the government had moved on if MPs backed the report on Monday.

“I think they should be decisive about supporting the privileges committee’s work,” she said.

“Essentially, it’s important to recognise that MPs, and especially prime ministers, cannot mislead parliament and be allowed to get away with that,” she added.

Johnson had earleir rebuffed calls by his Cabinet to step down in the wake of ethics scandals. He gave in after more than 40 ministers quit his government and told him to go.

It was not immediately clear whether Johnson would stay in office while the Conservative Party chooses a new leader, who will replace him as prime minister.

Minutes before the news broke, Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign just 36 hours after Johnson put him in the job, while another newly appointed Cabinet minister quit her post.

Zahawi said Johnson knew “the right thing to do” was to “go now.”

Zahawi was appointed late Tuesday to replace Rishi Sunak, who resigned saying he could no longer support Johnson after a series of ethics scandals.

Johnson face a vote of no-confidence in the House of Commons on Monday.

The vote was triggered after about 54 Tory Members of Parliament wrote letters saying they no longer supported Johnson following his “partygate” scandal during the height of the Covid lockdown, which sparked calls for his resignation.

Johnson hailed his 211 to 148 victory in the tense vote by Conservative Members of Parliament as a “convincing result.”

In his reaction, Johnson said it was “a convincing result, a decisive result, and what it means is that as a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people.”

He added, “I’m grateful to colleagues for the support they’ve given me. What we need to do now is come together as a government and as a party.

“We can focus on what we’re doing to help with the cost of living, what we’re doing to clear the Covid backlog, what we’re doing to make the streets and communities safer by putting more police out.”

Echoing the message of the PM on Twitter, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said, “The PM has won the confidence vote and now it’s time to move forward. Tomorrow we get back to work growing the economy and delivering better public services.”

All 359 Conservative MPs took part in the vote. The PM received the support of 211 Conservative MPs, with 148 voting against him.

Johnson was supported by 59% of his MPs, which is a lower than Theresa May’s 63% of Tory MPs in 2018, who ended up resigning six months later.

With surviving the vote of no-confidence, however, Johnson can continue as the Conservative Party leader and, therefore, prime minister. Following the current rules, Tory MPs cannot hold another vote on Johnson until after 12 months.

The rules can, however, be changed to be able to hold another vote sooner than the current rules allow. When asked about the possibility of such change, Sir Graham Brady MP – who oversees the process – told the British Broadcasting Corporation that “technically, it’s possible.”

“From today… anyone entering the UK illegally as well as those who have arrived illegally since January 1 may now be relocated to Rwanda,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in a speech near Dover in southeastern England.

“Rwanda will have the capacity to resettle tens of thousands of people in the years ahead,” Johnson said.

He called the East African nation with a sketchy human rights record “one of the safest countries in the world, globally recognised for its record of welcoming and integrating migrants.”

Johnson was elected partly on promises to curb illegal immigration but has instead seen record numbers making the risky Channel crossing.

He also announced that Britain’s border agency would hand responsibility for patrolling the Channel for migrant boats to the navy.

“The Royal Navy will take over operational command from Border Force in the Channel with the aim that no boat makes it to the UK undetected,” Johnson said, announcing extra funds for boats, aircraft and surveillance equipment to help detain people-smugglers at sea.

This will send a clear message to those piloting the boats. If you risk other people’s lives in the Channel, you risk spending your own life in prison,” he said.

More than 28,000 people arrived in Britain having crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2021.

Around 90 percent of those were male and three-quarters were men aged between 18 and 39.

The Rwanda plan swiftly drew the ire of opposition politicians who accused Johnson of trying to distract from his being fined for breaking coronavirus lockdown rules, while rights groups slammed the project as “inhumane”.

Ghana and Rwanda had previously been mentioned as possible locations for the UK to outsource the processing of migrants, but Ghana in January denied involvement.

Instead, Kigali on Thursday announcing that it had signed a multi-million-dollar deal to do the job, during a visit by British Home Secretary Priti Patel.

“Rwanda welcomes this partnership with the United Kingdom to host asylum seekers and migrants, and offer them legal pathways to residence” in the East African nation, Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta said in a statement.

The deal with Rwanda will be funded by the UK to the tune of up to 120 million pounds ($157 million, 144 million euros), with migrants “integrated into communities across the country,” it said.

Johnson arrived in Abu Dhabi for talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed and was due to fly to Riyadh later as the West seeks to end its dependency on Russian oil following the invasion of Ukraine.

His visit, as oil prices seesaw in extreme volatility, coincides with fresh condemnation of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record after 81 men were put to death in a mass execution on Saturday.

Johnson will also meet de facto Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he becomes one of the few Western leaders to visit Riyadh since the 2018 murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

US President Joe Biden and Prince Mohammed haven’t spoken since Biden took office and vowed to treat the kingdom as a “pariah” state over Khashoggi’s killing, which the CIA blamed on the Saudi royal.

The UK leader’s spokesman insisted he would raise human rights concerns and the recent executions, and would ask bin Salman to condemn Russia’s President Vladimir Putin over its assault on Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which are two of the world’s biggest oil exporters and both have ties to Russia, have so far avoided taking a position against Russia.

But Johnson said before leaving that the impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal and unprovoked” assault will be felt far beyond Europe.

He added that as Western sanctions begin to bite, a new international coalition was needed to offset their impact on consumers already feeling the pinch from rising inflation and increases in the cost of living.

“The world must wean itself off Russian hydrocarbons and starve Putin’s addiction to oil and gas,” he said in a statement.

“Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are key international partners in that effort.

“We will work with them to ensure regional security, support the humanitarian relief effort and stabilise global energy markets for the longer term.”

The UAE and Saudi Arabia are the UK’s two largest economic partners in the region, with bilateral trade worth £12.2 billion ($15.9 billion, 14.5 billion euros) and £10.4 billion respectively in 2020, Johnson’s office said.

The prime minister is hoping he can persuade bin Salman to boost his kingdom’s oil production to help lower spiralling prices that are pushing up household energy bills.

Germany last week issued an “urgent appeal” to the Saudi-led OPEC oil producers group to increase production “to create relief on the market” because of supply fears.

Like the United States, Britain plans to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of the year, as part of wide-ranging sanctions targeting Russian businesses and billionaires.

Russian imports account for 8.0 percent of total UK oil demand — less than in mainland Europe, where there has been a reluctance to turn the taps off completely.

Last week, countries including Germany warned against an abrupt ban on Russian energy imports given the lack of immediate alternative supplies.

Russia is the world’s largest producer of gas and second-largest oil producer behind OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia.

Torbjorn Soltvedt, Middle East and North Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, said efforts to bring down oil prices have so far amounted to little.

He said the odds were “stacked against Johnson as he seeks to secure a shift in Saudi and OPEC oil policy”.

“Saudi Arabia has so far proved reluctant to deviate from the current OPEC+ framework and plan, which mandates incremental monthly production increases,” he told AFP.

“The framework has been highly effective during the Covid-19 pandemic and there is strong reluctance to change course.”

Soltvedt said the UAE “may be more willing to open the taps” as it wants to capitalise on its oil reserves more quickly

But the UAE on March 10 reaffirmed its commitment to OPEC+ alliance agreements to stick to existing output targets through April.

The Minister said they can enter the country on the basis that they have immediate family members residing in the country.

“We want to be as generous as we possibly can to Ukraine, and indeed we want people who have relatives in Ukraine to be able to bring them over as fast as possible.

“We want to make sure that we have routes for Ukrainians fleeing disaster, war, persecution in Ukraine to come here,” the Prime Minister told reporters.

This is part of a new £40 million humanitarian package to supply necessities and medical supplies.

“We’re providing all the military and economic support we can to help those Ukrainians risking everything to protect their country.”

“In the last days, the world has witnessed awe-inspiring displays of bravery and heroism from the Ukrainian people in response to those who seek to obliterate their freedom by force,” Johnson said.

Johnson, however said more details of the new Ukrainian visa policy will be announced in Parliament this week.

The announcement followed a timeline of May 17 chosen by the UK to relaunch international travel.

Travel destinations will be ranked green, amber or red according to virus risk, Downing Street said in a statement late Saturday, with the government to provide more details on Monday, AFP reports.

International travel is currently banned except for a handful of permitted reasons. This has created massive pent-up demand for summer holidays abroad.

“We are doing everything we can to enable the reopening of our country… as safely as possible,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

The government said the new system “will help ensure the UK’s vaccine progress isn’t jeopardised and provide clear guidance for travellers”.

People heading to low-risk “green” countries will simply take a virus test before and after they travel, the government said.

But those going to amber or red countries will have to self-isolate or quarantine afterwards.

Currently people arriving in the UK from abroad are required to self-isolate for 10 days.

British nationals who arrive from a banned “red list” of high-risk countries face costly quarantine in government-approved hotels.

The government urged people not to book summer holidays, saying it was “too early to predict” which would be the green-lighted countries.

The government has announced it will allow a number of people to attend public events such as football matches from this month in trials of a virus certification system.

But it has not made clear whether it will issue “virus passports” for international travel, an idea backed by many tourism-dependent countries and airlines but opposed by more than 70 UK MPs.

The 22-year-old forward was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), in the Queen’s Birthday Honors list, approved by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

Rashford made an impact during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic when he campaigned for the government to allow about 1.3 million children to claim free school meal vouchers in England’s summer holidays during the coronavirus pandemic. The move forced the British government to reverse their decision in June, and agreed to continue funding meals for poor children over the summer holidays.

In a statement, Rashford said: “I’m incredibly honoured and humbled. As a young black man from Wythenshawe, never did I think I would be accepting an MBE, never mind an MBE at the age of 22. This is a very special moment for myself and my family, but particularly my mum who is the real deserving recipient of the honour. The fight to protect our most vulnerable children is far from over. I would be doing my community, and the families I have met and spoken with, an injustice if I didn’t use this opportunity to respectfully urge the Prime Minister, who recommended me for this honour, to support our children during the October half term with an extension of the voucher scheme, as the furlough scheme comes to an end and we face increased unemployment. Another sticking plaster, but one that will give the parents of millions of children in the UK just one less thing to worry about. Let’s stand together in saying that no children in the UK should be going to bed hungry. As I have said many times before, no matter your feeling or opinion, not having access to food is NEVER the child’s fault”

The Prime Minister made the announcement on Friday, July 17, in the latest lifting of the UK’s lockdown.

Johnson said “From August 1, we will restart indoor performance to a live audience, subject to the success of pilots, and we will also pilot larger gatherings in venues like sports stadia, with a view to a wider reopening in the autumn. From October, we intend to bring back audiences in stadia. Again, these changes must be done in a Covid-secure way, subject to the successful outcome of pilots”

The symbolic move was popularised in 2016 when National Football League star Colin Kaepernick got down on one knee while the US national anthem played before games, to protest against racism and police brutality. It has become more widespread in the wake of global demonstrations sparked by the killing of George Floyd.

Johnson said some police officers felt coerced into taking the knee because their colleagues had done so during recent BLM protests and that he believed the police should not take the knee as it is not safe for their colleagues.

Johnson also added he feels instead of people to focus on taking the knee, people should talk about how more black students are entering top universities and how more black people entered the MET police during his time as Mayor of London.
During a phone-in on Leading Conversations Britain (LCB) on Friday, Johnson said: ‘I believe in substance, I believe in doing things’. ‘Not in gestures. People shouldn’t be bullied into doing things they don’t necessarily want to. I would rather see a story of championing success and talking about the opportunities we can open. There are injustices we need to rectify but i don’t want people to be bullied into doing things they don’t want to do”