The prime minister was accused of “abuse of power” after disrupting the parliamentary caucus by refusing a vote scheduled for Wednesday – accusing Labor of “playing politics”. The vote will now be held on Monday, but only to give MPs a chance to express confidence in the government, not Mr Johnson himself, a move which a Labor source described as “strange”. A government spokesman accused Keir Starmer of breaching convention by making the prime minister the target of the vote – a claim rejected by experts. “To fix this, we are tabling a motion that gives Parliament the opportunity to decide whether it has confidence in the government.” said a statement. Labor accused the government of “running scared” when it denied Mr Johnson a confidence vote on Tuesday, saying: “This is completely unprecedented.” Erskine May, The Parliamentary Bible. He states that “by established convention” the government “always accepts the request of the leader of the opposition”. It was highly unlikely that enough Tory rebels would be found to win the vote – but it would embarrass Tory MPs who voted to keep Mr Johnson in office for now. The government argued the vote was a waste of parliamentary time because the prime minister has “already resigned”, even though he remains in No 10. Sir Keir’s spokesman said it would be “brazen hypocrisy” for Tory MPs to ask Mr Johnson to go straight to supporting the government next week – in a debate Mr Johnson will lead. The row erupted as Mr Johnson sparked speculation he would skip next week’s Prime Minister’s Questions – which would make today’s confrontation his last. The funeral of assassinated former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected in the middle of next week. Johnson’s political spokeswoman said he has “no plans” to attend. “As things stand, the Prime Minister will be asking Prime Minister’s Questions next week,” the spokeswoman said. Downing Street also revealed that Johnson will step down as No 10 on September 6, a day after his successor was announced following a vote by Tory MPs. His political spokeswoman also denied the widespread belief that he is working behind the scenes to try to prevent former chancellor Rishi Sunak from taking the crown. Eyebrows were raised when Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg appeared outside the No 10 door to support Liz Truss – a leading ‘Stop Sunak’ candidate. “We do not enter into discussions about leadership. We remain neutral in this process,” the spokeswoman said.
