Boris has suffered a ‘greater level of rejection’ than any other of his predecessors and has been called a ‘lame duck Prime Minister’

Boris Johnson suffered a “greater level of rejection” than Theresa May and Margret Thatcher and he should do the right thing and quit.

The former Prime Minister Theresa May faced a confidence vote in 2018 and she secured 63% of her MPs at the time, compared to Johnson’s 41%, May was forced out of Downing Street within six months.

On Monday MPs voted 211 to 148 in favour of Johnson in a confidence vote and the “damage to his premiership is severe.”

Lord William Hague wrote in The Times newspaper, “While Johnson has survived the night, the damage done to his premiership is severe.

“Words have been said that cannot be retracted, reports published that cannot be erased, and votes have been cast that show a greater level of rejection than any Tory leader has ever endured and survived.

“Deep inside, he should recognise that, and turn his mind to getting out in a way that spares party and country such agonies and uncertainties.”

Lord Hague noted that he never faced a confidence vote whilst he was the leader of the opposition from 1997 to 2001, he added, “would have regarded my position as completely untenable if more than a third of my MPs had ever voted against me”.

“The nature of this particular revolt makes it qualitatively as well as quantitatively devastating,” he wrote.

“A fairly narrow victory for Boris Johnson is not the defeat of a rival faction, or the squashing of an alternative candidate, but rather the fending-off of a gathering feeling of hopelessness.

“It is less likely to prove a turning point than a way marker on an exhausting road to further crises of confidence.

“That is the worst possible result from the Conservative Party’s point of view.

“Logically, they should either reconcile themselves to Johnson and get behind him, or decisively eject him and move on to a new leader. It does not seem they have done either.”

Despite the bombshell vote on Monday evening Johnson remains publicly upbeat and truly believes the confidence vote was an “extremely good” outcome.

The Prime Minister told reporters in Downing Street, “I think it’s an extremely good, positive, conclusive, decisive result which enables us to move on, to unite and to focus on delivery and that is exactly what we are going to do.”