Boris Johnson given last benefit of the doubt, says Tory MP

Boris Johnson was given "one last benefit of the doubt" by a Welsh Conservative MP in the confidence vote.

Monday night's vote in the prime minister saw 148 Tory MPs reject him, while 211 backed Mr Johnson.

Montgomeryshire MP and ministerial aide Craig Williams said he had spoken to people in his constituency "losing trust with us".

Mr Williams said both he, and these voters, think the prime minister "can do better".

Another MP, also speaking to BBC Wales, called for Mr Johnson to get rid of who they described as the "nutters in the cabinet".

"I thought long and hard yesterday about the decision to back the prime minister," said Mr Williams, who has a junior unpaid role in the government as a parliamentary private secretary.

"I decided to and I spoke to my association chairman, members, supporters and constituents and they broke into three buckets.

"The people that would never ever vote Conservative and want Boris to go, the people will always vote Conservative and want Boris to stay, and the bucket I was worried about, which are people that are losing trust with us, they want the prime minister to do better.

"They, like me, think he can do better and that's the people I need to earn the trust of and I think I've given him that one last benefit of the doubt."

Earlier Mr Williams described supporting Mr Johnson in the vote as being "not an easy decision".

The 148 Tory MPs voting against the prime minister "is a lot and we've got to rebuild that trust", he told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.

Rather than focus on an internal crisis, he said the party should direct its attention to issues such as food security and the war in Ukraine.

Six Welsh MPs said they would back the PM in the vote on Monday night - Simon Hart, David Davies, Alun Cairns, Simon Baynes, Sarah Atherton and Mr Williams - leaving seven others who have not stated what they wanted to do.

BBC Wales understands that one of the seven had been planning to vote against, but had not said so publicly.

Ynys Mon's Virginia Crosbie, issued a statement on Tuesday that it was "time to get behind" the prime minister, without stating what she did.

She has not provided confirmation of how she voted following requests from BBC Wales.

One MP, who did not want to be named, said: "What the PM needs to do is get rid of the nutters in the cabinet like the culture secretary and get in some of the rebels."

Another, who would not say how they voted, said: "I think that Boris is in some difficulty and he's going to have to work very hard to restore trust. That, also, will take some time."

Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Labour MP for Torfaen, said Mr Johnson "absolutely should stand down".

"He should have stood down months ago and done the right thing," he said, adding it was "an awful situation for the country".

"We've got 211 members of his parliament who are now complicit in his law breaking, saying it's acceptable to have a prime minister who is both law-breaker and a lawmaker."

Keeping him in office is "not the best thing for our country," he said, adding the prime minister had trashed his office.

Bronwen Nash, chair of Dwyfor Meirionnydd Conservative Association, said she could not believe the Tory party was again in the process of getting rid of its "best electoral asset."

"We have these rather extraordinary people with this kind of charisma which doesn't really often appear in political parties.

"They are 'Marmite' people, you either love them or hate them," she said.

She believed he would stay on and said he should focus on delivering the promises made in the Brexit vote.

Ms Nash also feared ousting the prime minister would leave the party without an obvious successor.

"The worst outcome to me it that we go into the next election not knowing what we're doing really.

"We won't have time to bed in a new leader and we haven't got an obvious new leader," she added.

There was a sense of resignation in the centre of Brecon after Conservative MPs voted to back Boris Johnson.

"It's almost a case of better the devil you know really," one man told me.

We heard the sentiment more than once from people who didn't see an obvious alternative leader in a seat the Tories reclaimed from the Liberal Democrats in 2019.

At her carpet and flooring business, Youngs, in the town centre, Dawn McIntosh said she would stick with the Conservatives.

She was "on the fence" about Mr Johnson, but thought "now would definitely be the wrong time" to change the leader.

Malcolm MacDonald, whose family have a fish stall in the town market, said the prime minister had been the subject of a "witch hunt".

"Johnson has got a lot of faults, but so has everybody," he said.

"He looks like a clown, but he's not as big a clown as everyone thinks he is."