Boris Johnson will face a vote of no confidence in his leadership today, it has been announced.

Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee, said in a statement: “The threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded.

“In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 TODAY MONDAY 6th JUNE — details to be confirmed.

“The votes will be counted immediately afterwards. An announcement will be made at a time to be advised. Arrangements for the announcement will be released later today.”

The secret ballot will take place between 6pm and 8pm on Monday.

If half of MPs vote that they do not hold confidence in Mr Johnson’s leadership, then he will be ousted.

But, as the rules currently stand, if Mr Johnson wins a confidence vote, he cannot be challenged again for 12 months.

Isle of Wight County Press: Sir Graham Brady (PA)Sir Graham Brady (PA)

Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for North Thanet, says the party is “spoilt for choice” when it comes to options for a new leader, as Boris Johnson faces the possibility of a no confidence vote.

Asked on BBC Breakfast if he knows who he would back to replace the Prime Minister, Sir Roger said: “I haven’t exercised my judgment yet because I don’t know precisely who’s going to run.”

“I do know that we have some very good alternatives to the Prime Minister so we’re not short of choice.

“There is a list of people, and you know the list as well as I do, who are likely to run.

“Any single one of those people in my view would make a better prime minister than the one that we’ve got at the moment and as I said, I think we’re spoilt for choice.

“There are some very safe pairs of hands there. I won’t name names because the moment I do it’ll be assumed that I’m backing that person.”

Cabinet Office Minister Steve Barclay has warned Tory MPs not to throw away the progress the Government has been making in dealing with the fall out from the pandemic with a leadership challenge to Boris Johnson.

Writing on the ConservativeHome website, Mr Barclay said the next general election would not be decided by the Sue Gray report and urged MPs not to “waste time and energy looking backwards and inwards, talking to ourselves about ourselves”.

“The parliamentary majority we hold is incredibly rare. To waste time now on continued internal factionalisaton would be indefensible to many of our party members – given how hard they worked to secure that majority,” he said.

“The problems we face aren’t easy to solve. Democracies around the world are all currently facing similar challenges. But under Boris Johnson’s leadership, our plan for jobs shows how we are navigated through these global challenges.

“To disrupt that progress now would be inexcusable to many who lent their vote to us for the first time at the last general election, and who want to see our Prime Minister deliver the changes promised for their communities.”