By Elizabeth Piper

LONDON, (Reuters) – A revolt against Prime Minister Boris Johnson was staged by his Conservative Party’s newest MPs. However, it could just be a sign of what lies ahead.

The revolt demonstrated that Johnson’s loyalty to the legislature is strongly tied to his vote-winner reputation, which is now in serious jeopardy.

A civil service report on Johnson’s performance at a number of events is due to be released next week. It will focus on the series of events that Johnson appeared to have survived despite the coronavirus lockdowns. This could signal that Johnson may be facing more formidable and experienced rivals.

A lot of rebels won first-time seats in 2019, representing constituencies which had not voted for Conservatives for many decades. They felt that Johnson owed them those unexpected victories.

According to some lawmakers who attended, the rebellion had grown for several months prior to the rebels meeting twice in the early hours of the week to assess the desire to try to force Johnson out. All requested anonymity.

They also agreed to initiate the process for forcing a parliamentary confidence vote against Johnson. Johnson has been under tremendous pressure due to revelations concerning gatherings at Downing Street headquarters. Johnson has requested that critics wait to see the results of Sue Gray’s civil servant investigation.

One new MP said that they were struggling to understand the future direction of Johnson’s party and Johnson’s government. The steady drip of information about Lockdown-breaking Parties in Downing Street made them bolder.

Many were unhappy at being forced to vote on policies that they did not agree with. Others felt Johnson’s government was not engaging with Conservative MPs. And many were upset at the way in which policy, scandals, and missteps were handled.

Johnson repeated his assertion that Downing Street had not violated COVID-19 regulations, but did admit that he was at the May 20th, 2020 meeting, where staff were invited to bring their own alcohol by an aide.

“OVEREXCITED”

Johnson’s replies to the accusations, which included his claim that he didn’t know the event was anything but a work meeting were described as “bullshit” by a disgruntled lawyer.

Some believed that they had enough support Tuesday to allow them to vote no confidence in Johnson’s parliamentary party by passing the 54 written expressions.

However, their plan proved to be flawed. According to Reuters sources, they failed to reach an agreement on a successor and did not devise a strategy to collect the necessary numbers. They were then confronted with a party machine, which weakened their attack.

In just one day it was clear that the 54 letter threshold had been exceeded. Christian Wakeford, one of their fellow colleagues, left the Conservatives just hours later to form the Labour Party.

Many older Conservatives weren’t surprised that the plot didn’t work.

A veteran Conservative MP, who was involved in the training of potential candidates, said that the new cohort had not been hampered by previous failed campaigns to win office.

A lot of their work in parliament has been done virtually due to coronavirus restrictions. This means that they missed the opportunity for a traditional initiation into the parliamentary party as well as the work of an MP.

One senior Conservative lawmaker said that they were getting letters and emails from disaffected voters. Some of them would not vote Tory (Conservative), but they’re getting scared.” He added that they didn’t know enough older members to ask for advice.

Another senior Conservative said that “they are all a little too excited”.

Overexcited is not necessarily wrong. Sue Gray’s report on civil service is more eagerly awaited than many.