British Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a no-confidence vote on Monday, securing enough support from his Conservative Party to remain in office despite a substantial rebellion that leaves him a weakened leader with an uncertain future.Known for his ability to shrug off scandals, the charismatic leader has struggled to turn the page on revelations that he and his staff repeatedly held boozy parties that flouted the COVID-19 restrictions they imposed on others. Support among his fellow Conservative lawmakers has weakened as some see a leader renowned for his ability to connect with voters increasingly as a liability rather than an asset in elections.Johnson won the backing of 211 out of 359 Conservative lawmakers in a secret ballot, more than the simple majority needed to remain in power, but still a significant rebellion of 148 MPs.Johnson called it a “convincing” win and said the party should now “come together.”“What it means is that as a government we can move on and focus on stuff that I think really matters to people,” he said.With no clear front-runner to succeed him, most political observers had predicted Johnson would defeat the challenge. But the rebellion could still be a watershed moment for him — and is a sign of deep Conservative divisions, less than three years after he led the party to its biggest election victory in decades.Johnson’s winning margin is less than that secured by his predecessor Theresa May in a similar vote in December 2018. She was forced to resign six months later.Since replacing May as prime minister in 2019, Johnson has led Britain out of the European Union and through a pandemic, both of which have shaken the U.K. socially and economically. The vote comes as Johnson’s government is under intense pressure to ease the pain of skyrocketing energy and food bills.But the main blow to his leadership has been revelations that he and his staff repeatedly held illegal parties during lockdowns. That caused anger in the country, and unease among many Conservatives.Discontent that has been building for months erupted after a 10-day parliamentary break that included a long weekend of celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. For many, the four-day holiday was a chance to relax — but there was no respite for Johnson, who was booed by some onlookers as he arrived for a service in the queen’s honor at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Friday.Conservative Party official Graham Brady announced Monday that he had received letters calling for a no-confidence vote from at least 54 Tory legislators, enough to trigger the measure under party rules. Hours later, party lawmakers lined up by the dozen in a corridor at Parliament to cast their ballots in a wood-paneled room, handing over their phones as they entered to ensure secrecy.Johnson addressed dozens of Conservative lawmakers in a House of Commons room before the vote as he tried to shore up support, vowing: “I will lead you to victory again.”Johnson’s allies had insisted he would stay in office if he won by even a single vote.Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said Johnson had won the vote “handsomely,” and urged the party to “draw a line under this now.”Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, one of the favorites to succeed Johnson if he is ousted, tweeted: "Pleased that colleagues have backed the Prime Minister. I support him 100%. Now’s the time to get on with the job.”But previous prime ministers who survived no-confidence votes emerged severely weakened.Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, capping a rollercoaster journey to the top. He had held major offices, including London mayor and U.K. foreign secretary, but also spent periods on the political sidelines after self-inflicted gaffes. He kept bouncing back, showing an uncommon ability to shrug off scandal and connect with voters that, for many Conservatives, overshadowed doubts about his ethics or judgment.But concerns came to a head after an investigator’s report late last month that slammed a culture of rule-breaking inside the prime minister’s office in a scandal known as “partygate.”Civil service investigator Sue Gray described alcohol-fueled bashes held by Downing Street staff members in 2020 and 2021, when pandemic restrictions prevented U.K. residents from socializing or even visiting dying relatives.Gray said Johnson and senior officials must bear responsibility for “failures of leadership and judgment.”Johnson also was fined 50 pounds ($63) by police for attending one party, making him the first prime minister sanctioned for breaking the law while in office.The prime minister said he was “humbled” and took “full responsibility” — but insisted he would not resign.But a growing number of Conservatives feel that Johnson is now a liability who will doom them to defeat at the next election, which must be held by 2024.“Today’s decision is change or lose,” said Jeremy Hunt, who ran against Johnson for the Conservative leadership in 2019 but has largely refrained from criticizing him since. “I will be voting for change.”Lawmaker Jesse Norman, a longtime Johnson supporter, said the prime minister had “presided over a culture of casual law-breaking” and had left the government “adrift and distracted.”Despite his victory, Johnson is likely to face more pressure. The war in Ukraine, a simmering post-Brexit feud with the EU and soaring inflation are all weighing on the government.Polls give the left-of-center opposition Labour Party a lead nationally, and the Conservatives could lose special elections later this month for two parliamentary districts, called when incumbent Tory lawmakers were forced out by sex scandals.Johnson tried to focus on broader issues, promising colleagues he would cut taxes — a policy popular with Tories — and noting that he spoke Monday to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He has been a vocal supporter of Ukraine’s cause, a stance shared by his possible successors.Cabinet minister Steve Barclay, a Johnson ally, said toppling the leader now would be “indefensible.”But Steve Baker, a strong Brexit supporter whose opposition to May helped Johnson take power, said he was voting for Johnson to go because the prime minister had broken the law.He predicted before the vote that Johnson would likely “formally win” but said that would not settle the matter.“What that means over the months ahead, I don’t know,” Baker said.

President Joe Biden on Saturday called embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss' abandoned tax cut plan a “mistake,” and said he is worried that other nations' fiscal policies may hurt the U.S. amid “worldwide inflation."Biden said it was “predictable” that the new prime minister on Friday was forced to walk back plans to aggressively cut taxes without identifying cost savings, after Truss' proposal caused turmoil in global financial markets. It marked an unusual criticism by a U.S. president of the domestic policy decisions of one of its closest allies.“I wasn’t the only one that thought it was a mistake," Biden said. "I disagree with the policy, but that’s up to Great Britain.”Biden's comments came after weeks of White House officials declining to criticize Truss' plans, though they emphasized they were monitoring the economic fallout closely. He was speaking to reporters at an Oregon ice cream shop where he made an unannounced stop to promote the candidacy of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek, as Democrats across the country face a tough political environment amid GOP criticism of their handling of the economy.Biden said he was not concerned about the strength of the dollar — it set a new record against the British Pound in recent weeks — which benefits U.S. imports but makes the country's exports more expensive to the rest of the world.The president said the U.S. economy "is strong as hell.”“I’m concerned about the rest of the world,” he added. “The problem is the lack of economic growth and sound policy in other countries."Said Biden: “It's worldwide inflation, that's consequential.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired the chairman of his ruling Conservative Party Sunday over a “serious breach” of the ministerial code.Pressure had been building on Nadhim Zahawi amid allegations he settled a multimillion-dollar unpaid tax bill while he was in charge of the country’s Treasury.In a letter to Zahawi, Sunak wrote he had been forced to act after promising at the start of his tenure that his government “would have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.”There was no immediate comment from Zahawi.Zahawi, the founder of polling website YouGov, had acknowledged a dispute with tax authorities, but argued his error was “careless and not deliberate.”The British media reported the settlement came to almost 5 million pounds ($6.2 million).Zahawi headed the U.K. Treasury from July to September 2022 in the final months of Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister. Sunak said the decision had come at the end of an investigation into the party chairman’s financial dealings by the government’s independent standards adviser.The report by Laurie Magnus found Zahawi had shown “insufficient regard” for the ministerial code and the required standards “to be honest, open and an exemplary leader through his own behavior” in public life.The investigation into his affairs by HMRC, the U.K’s tax office, centered around the sale of some £27 million ($33.4 million) in shares in YouGov.The probe began in April 2021, but Zahawi did not declare it when he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer more than a year later.The Magnus report found there should have been an understanding from the outset the matter was serious. It said this was not reflected in public statements given by Zahawi, until he confirmed on Jan. 21 of this year that a settlement had been reached.Zahawi in a statement Sunday said it had been a privilege to serve in successive governments and told the prime minister he could be assured of his continuing support.He made no reference to the ethics investigation, but said he was concerned over the conduct of some parts of the media in recent weeks, adding that some reporting did not reflect “legitimate scrutiny of public officials.”The 55-year-old had previously worked as vaccines minister in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, followed by a nine-month stint as education minister.

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisted “hand on heart” Wednesday that he never lied to lawmakers about rule-breaking government parties during the COVID-19 pandemic, mounting a robust defense at a hearing that could damage or even end his tumultuous political career.The House of Commons standards committee questioned Johnson over misleading statements he made to Parliament about a slew of gatherings in government buildings that breached lockdown rules. If the committee concludes that he deliberately lied, he could face suspension or even lose his seat in the Commons.Johnson came out swinging, telling the committee after taking an oath on a Bible: “Hand on heart ... I did not lie to the House.”“If anybody thinks I was partying during lockdown, they are completely wrong," Johnson said during a session that displayed his characteristic qualities: blustering self-confidence, verbosity and — to critics — a loose relationship with facts.Johnson also criticized the committee, which has four Conservative members and three from opposition parties, saying it was acting as “investigator, prosecutor, judge and jury.”The three-hour hearing was a moment of peril for a politician whose career has been a roller coaster of scandals and comebacks.Video below: Shadow Secretary of State Steve Reed says Boris Johnson has been 'running from the truth for months'If the House of Commons Committee of Privileges concludes Johnson lied deliberately, it would likely end hopes of a return to power for the 58-year-old politician, who led the Conservative Party to a landslide victory in 2019.He was forced out by his own party in July 2022 after getting mired in scandals over money, ethics and judgment.After reports of the parties emerged in December 2021, Johnson repeatedly assured lawmakers that he and his staff had always followed the rules.That turned out to be wrong, Johnson acknowledged. But he said it was “what I honestly believed at the time.”“I apologize for inadvertently misleading this House, but to say that I did it recklessly or deliberately is completely untrue,” he said.In an interim report this month, the committee said evidence strongly suggested that it would have been ”obvious” to Johnson that gatherings in his No. 10, Downing Street offices in 2020 and 2021 broke COVID-19 lockdown rules.Video below: Johnson’s key arguments to MPs ahead of committee appearanceBut Johnson said it never occurred to him that the events — which variously included cake, wine, cheese and a “secret Santa” festive gift exchange — broke the restrictions on socializing that his own government had imposed on the country.He said he “honestly believed” the five events he attended, including a send-off for a staffer and his own surprise birthday party, were “lawful work gatherings” intended to boost morale among overworked staff members coping with a deadly pandemic.He said that at the June 19, 2020 birthday celebration, no one sang “Happy Birthday” and the "Union Jack cake remained in its Tupperware box, unnoticed by me."Johnson said “trusted advisers” assured him that neither the legally binding rules nor the government's coronavirus guidance had been broken.However, several senior officials denied advising Johnson that the guidance always was followed. Written evidence released by the committee on Wednesday showed that principal private secretary Martin Reynolds said that he had “questioned whether it was realistic to argue that all guidance had been followed at all times.”Police eventually issued 126 fines over the late-night soirees, boozy parties and “wine time Fridays,” including one to Johnson, and the scandal helped hasten the end of his premiership.Revelations about the gatherings sparked anger among Britons who had followed the government's pandemic rules, unable to visit friends and family or even say goodbye to dying relatives in hospitals. Police fined thousands of people across the country for minor breaches of the rules.Johnson said he was later “genuinely shocked” by the government's own rule-breaking that was uncovered by police and by senior civil servant Sue Gray, who led an investigation into partygate.The committee said it would take time to consider the evidence. If it finds Johnson in contempt, it could recommend punishments ranging from an oral apology to suspension from Parliament, though any sanction would have to be approved by the whole House of Commons.A suspension of 10 days or more would allow his constituents in the suburban London seat of Uxbridge and South Ruislip to petition for a special election to replace Johnson as a member of Parliament.Rivka Gottlieb of the pressure group COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said the session was “a new low for Boris Johnson.”“It’s clear he lied when he said to our faces that he’d done ‘all he could’ to protect our loved ones, he lied again when he said the rules hadn’t been broken in No. 10, and he’s lying now when he denies that was the case,” Gottlieb said.

World leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations are set to commit at their summit to share at least 1 billion coronavirus shots with struggling countries around the world — half the doses coming from the U.S. and 100 million from the U.K.Vaccine sharing commitments from President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday set the stage for the G-7 leaders' meeting in England, where leaders will pivot Friday from opening greetings and a "family photo" directly into a session on "Building Back Better From COVID-19.""We're going to help lead the world out of this pandemic working alongside our global partners," Biden said, adding that the G-7 nations would join the U.S. in outlining their vaccine donation commitments at the three-day summit. The G-7 also includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan. The G-7 leaders have faced mounting pressure to outline their global vaccine sharing plans, especially as inequities in supply around the world have become more pronounced. In the U.S., there is a large vaccine stockpile and the demand for shots has dropped precipitously in recent weeks. Biden said the U.S. will donate 500 million COVID-19 vaccine doses and previewed a coordinated effort by the advanced economies to make vaccination widely and speedily available everywhere. The commitment was on top of 80 million doses Biden has already pledged to donate by the end of June.Related video: Bidens and Johnsons bump elbows outside G-7 venueJohnson, for his part, said the first 5 million U.K. doses would be shared in the coming weeks, with the remainder coming over the next year. "At the G7 Summit I hope my fellow leaders will make similar pledges so that, together, we can vaccinate the world by the end of next year and build back better from coronavirus," Johnson said in a statement referencing the U.S. president's campaign slogan.Earlier Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the U.S. commitment and said Europe should do the same. He said France would share at least 30 million doses globally by year's end."The European Union needs to have at least the same level of ambition as the United States," he said at a news conference. He added that time was of the essence, saying, "It's almost more important to say how many (doses) we deliver the next month than making promises to be fulfilled in 18 months from now."Biden predicted the U.S. doses and the overall G-7 commitment would "supercharge" the global vaccination campaign, adding that the U.S. doses come with no strings attached."Our vaccine donations don't include pressure for favors or potential concessions," Biden said. "We're doing this to save lives, to end this pandemic, that's it."He added: "Our values call on us to do everything that we can to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.″The U.S. commitment is to buy and donate 500 million Pfizer doses for distribution through the global COVAX alliance to 92 lower-income countries and the African Union, bringing the first steady supply of mRNA vaccine to the countries that need it most. The Pfizer agreement came together with some urgency in the last four weeks at Biden's direction, said a senior White House official, both to meet critical needs overseas and to be ready for announcement at the G-7. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, added that the Biden administration was to apply the same wartime posture applied to the vaccine rollout in the U.S. to its effort to share vaccines globally.Biden said the 500 million U.S.-manufactured vaccines will be shipped starting in August, with the goal of distributing 200 million by the end of the year. The remaining 300 million doses would be shipped in the first half of 2022. A price tag for the doses was not released, but the U.S. is now set to be COVAX's largest vaccine donor in addition to its single largest funder with a $4 billion commitment. The well-funded global alliance has faced a slow start to its vaccination campaign, as richer nations have locked up billions of doses through contracts directly with drug manufacturers. Biden's move, officials said, was meant to ensure a substantial amount of manufacturing capacity remains open to the wealthy nations. Just last month, the European Commission signed an agreement to purchase as many as 1.8 billion Pfizer doses in the next two years, a significant share of the company's upcoming production — though the bloc reserved the right to donate some of its doses to COVAX.COVAX has distributed just 81 million doses globally and parts of the world, particularly in Africa, remain vaccine deserts. White House officials said the ramped-up distribution program fits a theme Biden plans to hit frequently during his week in Europe: that Western democracies, and not authoritarian states, can deliver the most good for the world.U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters Wednesday that G-7 leaders are "converging" around the idea that vaccine supply can be increased in several ways, including by countries sharing more of their own doses, helping to increase global manufacturing capacity and doing more across the "chain of custody" from when the vaccine is produced to when it is injected into someone in the developing world.Biden, in his remarks, harked back to the Detroit-area workers who 80 years ago built tanks and planes "that helped defeat the threat of global fascism in World War II." "They built what became known as the arsenal of democracy," Biden said. "Now a new generation of American men and women, working with today's latest technology, is going to build a new arsenal to defeat the current enemy of world peace, health and stability: COVID-19."He noted that Pfizer's main COVID-19 vaccine plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is not far from Detroit.Last week, the White House unveiled plans to donate an initial allotment of 25 million doses of surplus vaccine overseas, mostly through the World Health Organization-backed COVAX program, promising infusions for South and Central America, Asia, Africa and others. Officials say a quarter of that excess will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the U.S. to share directly with allies and partners, including South Korea, Taiwan and Ukraine. Johnson said the U.K. would follow a similar model with its doses, holding 20% in reserve for bilateral agreements but sending the vast majority to COVAX.China and Russia have shared their domestically produced vaccines with some needy countries, often with hidden strings attached. Sullivan said Biden "does want to show — rallying the rest of the world's democracies — that democracies are the countries that can best deliver solutions for people everywhere."___Miller reported from Washington. Lawless reported from Falmouth, England. AP writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jonathan Lemire in Plymouth, England, contributed to this report.

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