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Johnson's internal rival Tom Tugendhat: support from several Tory MPs
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- / AFP
In the midst of the processing of the Partygate scandal surrounding Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat is bringing himself into play as his successor.
If there is a vote, he wants to run, Tugendhat told Times Radio.
He is currently head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament and is considered a critic and internal party rival of Johnson.
Johnson has been under heavy pressure for weeks over the affair surrounding several downing street lockdown parties. While strict corona restrictions applied and, for example, members of different households were not allowed to meet in closed rooms, Johnson is said to have drunk and celebrated with several dozen, at times even almost 100 acquaintances at his office. One of the celebrations is said to have even taken place during national mourning for the death of Prince Philip.
The British prime minister has apologized several times since then.
He and his government had made mistakes for which he wanted to take responsibility, he said in the British House of Commons in mid-January.
Criticism hailed both from the opposition and from his own party, and Johnson is now threatened with a vote of no confidence.
Some Conservative MPs have already publicly called for his resignation;
However, Johnson was recently combative.
The police are investigating the parties
The police are now investigating the lockdown parties.
The internal government report, which top official Sue Gray is preparing, was due to be released before the end of this week - and is likely to be postponed following the police announcement.
In order to avoid "any bias" in the investigation, Scotland Yard had also asked that "minimum reference be made in the Cabinet Office report to the events being investigated by the Metropolitan Police".
Opposition leader Keif Starmer from the Labor Party sharply criticized this.
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Tom Tugendhat, who is now positioning himself as a possible successor, is seen in the British Parliament as a moderate conservative, a man of the centre.
He had campaigned for Great Britain to stay in the EU;
Like many "Tories" from the Conservative Party, he rejects stricter measures to contain the corona pandemic.
The Afghanistan veteran has no ministerial government experience.
As the Daily Mail reported, Tugendhat can count on the support of several Tory MPs from the center of the party.
The British “Guardian”, on the other hand, considers his chances of becoming prime minister to be slim.
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