GREEN MP Caroline Lucas has said that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership is “hugely damaged” after he narrowly survived a no-confidence vote.

The secret ballot among Conservative MPs saw 211 back the Prime Minister, but a significant revolt resulted in 148 voting to call for new leadership of the party.

The Prime Minister’s vote share of support, 59 per cent, was lower than the 63 per cent received by former Prime Minister Theresa May in a confidence vote in 2018. She later went on to resign six months later amid continuing deadlock over Brexit.

The MP for Brighton Pavilion repeated her call for Johnson to resign and said: “He’s hugely damaged by this - if so many of his own MPs have no confidence in him, how does he expect the rest of the country to?

“A few hand-written letters and an hour of begging might have convinced just enough of his spineless colleagues to keep him in office, but it won’t convince the public.”

She also accused the Prime Minister of “going full Trump” after describing the result of the confidence vote as “convincing and decisive”.

Ms Lucas said: “Four in ten of his own MPs don’t have confidence in him, rising to seven in ten if you just count the backbenchers - and he’s telling us it’s a ‘very good result’.

“Does Boris Johnson think we can’t add up?”

Two Tory MPs from Sussex - Worthing’s Tim Loughton and Bognor’s Nick Gibb, were among those who called on the Prime Minister to resign in recent weeks and submitted letters to trigger yesterday’s confidence vote.

Speaking after the vote, Boris Johnson said that the result allows the government to focus on issues that matter to the public, including addressing the cost of living crisis.

He said: “I understand that what we need to do now is come together as a government, as a party, and that is exactly what we can do now.”

However, MPs in the party remain divided after the attempt to usurp Johnson, with several claiming the Prime Minister’s days in office are now numbered.

Former minister and Bournemouth MP Tobias Ellwood said he thinks Johnson has only “a matter of months” left in his post and told Sky News that he believes a new leader could be in place by the Conservative Party conference in October.