Rebecca Pow: ‘It's important that we now deliver for the country’

Mr Johnson won the secret ballot by 211 votes to 148 - meaning 59 per cent of Conservative MPs backed his leadership.

The vote was triggered after at least 15 per cent of the parliamentary party submitted letters of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady, who chairs the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives. 

Discontent among Conservative MPs in his leadership grew in the wake of the ‘Partygate’ scandal, while there have also been concerns about the government's economic policy and plans to send migrants to Rwanda.

After the vote, Mr Johnson said: “I think this is a very good result for politics and for the country.

“In this sense, I think it’s 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.

I got a far bigger mandate from my own parliamentary colleagues, for instance, that I had in 2019 and I’m grateful to colleagues, I’m grateful for the support they’ve given me.”

Boris Johnson chairs a Cabinet meeting at 10 Downing Street after surviving a confidence vote. Picture: Leon Neal, PA Wire

Ms Pow has represented Taunton Deane since 2015 and was appointed parliamentary under-secretary for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affair (DEFRA) in 2019.

In a statement given to the County Gazette yesterday (Tuesday) evening, Ms Pow said: “Following last night’s vote of confidence in the prime minister, I believe it’s important that we now pull together, deliver for the country and turn our focus to the economy, jobs and skills, cost of living, further support for Ukraine, and the new era for sustainable food production and food security with nature recovery.

“I continue to support the Government in fulfilling these ambitions.”

You can see how other Somerset Conservative MPs voted or what they have said about the prime minister's leadership HERE.

Mr Johnson will face Parliament for the first time since surviving the confidence vote today, with allies expected to stage a public show of support for him. 

But he is likely to face pressure after 41 per cent of his MPs voted against him.

Yesterday, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said he is “very happy” that Mr Johnson - whom he described as a “true friend of Ukraine” - will remain prime minister.