these are the top stories now. the un's as the world must act immediately or there will be an explosion of child deaths in the horn of africa. 14 million bullard risk of starvation as the region deals with the worst route in 40 years. ukrainian troops are battling to defend an eastern industrial city. russia has sent more troops to encircle the area, but ukraine's

president remains defiant, saying his forces will and back all occupied territories. that was a response to suggestions ukraine may have to cede some territory to end the war appeared activists say one of the largest migrations in recent years is underway as thousands escaping violence and poverty move into mexico towards the u.s. border. most refugees and migrants in the so-called caravan are from venezuela, haiti and guatemala, coinciding with a regional summit were migration will be discussed. there are other headlines. the news continues here on al jazeera after "inside story." stay with us. ♪ >> [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] ♪

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>> british prime minister boris johnson has withstood a challenge to his conservative party leadership. candy regain -- can he regain their trust and that of the british people? this is "inside story." ♪ >> hello. welcome to the program. the u.k. prime minister says it is time to on from questions about his leadership. boris johnson survived a confidence vote within his own party monday, calling the

outcome convincing and decisive. but the scale of the rebellion means some government ministers and aides voted against johnson in the secret ballot. not since margaret thatcher's leadership was challenged in 1990 has there been such a close vote. even though he survived, it is definitely raising doubts about boris johnson's future. 211 conservative mps voted to support the prime minister, wild 148 voted against him. that means 40% of johnson's colleagues chose not to back him. al jazeera's paul brennan reports from london. paul: a victory for the prime minister, but far from convincing. >> a vote of -- a vote in favor of boris johnson was 200 11 and against was 148 votes. therefore, i can announce that

the parliamentary party does have the votes. [applause] paul: a raucous reaction from boris johnson supporters. but there is no disguising the in normandy of 148 mps who voted against their leader. >> it is a convincing result, a decisive result. what it means is that, as a government, we can move on and focus on the stuff that matters to people. paul: there has been feverish speculation about johnson's future, relegated somewhat by last week's national holiday in honor of the queen's platinum jubilee. but public bluing -- booing at the prime minister friday at a service for the queen was an ominous indicator. a rendon -- a random sample of

london commuters confirms a degree of public disillusionment. >> it was a turning point for me, actually. paul: despite securing a majority in the general election two and a half years ago, boris johnson endured months of controversy and criticism which of undermine his authority. chief among them, the partygate saga, were johnson and his staff were found to have flouted covid lockdown rules that downing street gatherings. johnson became the first pm judged to have broken the law while in office, an official inquiry criticizing his lack of leadership. >> the british public are fed up with promises that are baked but never delivered. fed up with a prime minister who presided over a culture of lies and lawbreaking at the heart of government, fed up with a prime minister who is utterly unfit for the great office he holds.

paul: a victory for boris johnson, but hardly a ringing endorsement of him and his leadership. one commentator monday said johnson's appeal and the party was a milewide, but just an inch deep. so it seems. johnson himself will undoubtedly battle tooth and nail to maintain his grip on power, but options are dwindling. current rules mean it will be at least 12 months before a new confidence vote can be called. questions about the prime minister's judgment and credibility remain and shows that surviving the confidence vote may only be a stay of execution, rather than a reprieve. paul johnson, al jazeera, westminster. >> let's ringing our guests, in london, kevin cragg, ceo and founder of plmr. ross greer is a scottish green party politician and member of the scottish parliament.

in london, alan mendoza, director of the henry jackson cited. elko. -- welcome. kevin, for a prime minister who told the people to move on but you see it that same way? kevin: i think even somebody who tries to be as politically neutral as possible in this country has to say now, it is going to be very difficult for the prime minister to move on. he may have won the vote of confidence last night among his own mps, but look at this statistic. in the house of commons, 211 of the 650 mps think the prime minister is the right man to lead the country. and i know you can say, a win by one vote is a win. but last night was an exceptionally low level of

support for a sitting conservative mp. and i think in reality come up with all these challenges coming, the environment, cost-of-living, conflict in ukraine, it is going to be very difficult for boris johnson, who is a great political survivor, to see this through. we have two big moments of danger coming up in the next month in britain for him. number one, in late june, two parliamentary bye elections. if he loses both of those, particularly it one where the liberal democrats are one of the top parties in the country like the greens, if he loses that, he is in severe trouble. and we have a house of commons privileges committee publicly looking into whether the prime minister lied to the house of commons. so yes, he won last night technically and in arithmetic

terms, but it is not over. >> the opposition came out in opposition of the vote and criticism of boris johnson. do you think his days are numbered? >> it is very clear that when three quarters of his backbench mps, backbench tory mps say they have no confidence in him, it is time to go. johnson only survived the vote of confidence because of the large number of tory mps who are ministers, junior ministers, parliamentary secretaries who are part of the government. when you have lost control of three quarters of your own backbench parliamentary party, never mind the rest of the country, clearly your days are numbered. theresa may survived a vote of confidence with a larger margin of this at was gone within a few months. it is not just the fact orest johnson and those around him rope rules they were setting during covid. it is the fact he lied about it. this whole episode shows up one

of the traits most people in the u.k. always knew about boris johnson and people of his class, that they think they can get away with anything because so much of their life has been spent not having to deal with consequences of their own decisions. scotland is in a different place and never had confidence in boris johnson in the first place. his party have never won an election year. you have to go back to the 19 ftes to the predecessor party. but it is clear across the u.k. that there is absolutely no trust in this prime minister. and when you have a cost-of-living crisis, war of the european continent done so much deeply wrong with our economy, you need leaders you can trust. boris johnson has used that all up and is quite clearly lying not just parliament, but the public as well. >> do you see boris johnson bouncing back in the near future? >> i think he is going to need to bounce back if he is going to survive. that is the reality. yes, he did secure a victory, and it was a victory, going with

the back drop your previously guessed set out. you might have expected him to lose, but he did not. i think it was also a mistake that is backbench voted against him. like others, they are ambitious people maneuvering within the cabinet himself. but he has won the vote. maybe not as convincing a victory as he would have liked. he now has a brief time when he can attempt to reset the agenda. and he needs to do this very quickly. he does have a problem of the two bye elections coming up and we will see how the conservatives do. but i expect if he really wants to stay in this job, i expect a reshuffle of his government and i expect there to be a series of policy lunches to show that he is leading again. part of the reason he has been in trouble is because there is a sense the government has been adrift. maybe events have contributed to

that. he needs to get a handle on that quickly. and if he can't, it is possible he could turn this around simply because he has a remarkable ability to get out of positions others might not manage to. >> kevin, judging from results of the confidence vote, is he likely to be able to hold the party together? because there is no doubt in the minds of the people watching the vote that the tories are more divided than ever. >> yes, and they aren't going to make a real effort to be really fair to the prime minister, and tried -- and i am going to make a real effort to be fair to the prime minister and try to be measured. but we have now on social media briefing note written by conservative mps, outlining in great detail the fear are -- the furors that the reasons

why boris johnson exit terrible prime minister. each week here, we have prime minister's questions. can you imagine how terrible it will be every week when the leader of the labour party, the leader of the scottish national party in westminster, they get up and they have an attack sheet to use viciously against the prime minister, not written by people who don't vote conservative, this is written by conservative mps. and the reality is, i heard what your previous guest said and that is one theoretical way forward. sometimes in politics in this country, you can smell the way things are going. and even though he won last night, i cannot see boris johnson leading the conservative party into the next general election. i will tell you this. the labour party would certainly

love it if you did, currently. but in terms of political strategy, the clever thing to do for conservatives, which they have done before, because we know they are clever at winning elections, is to find a new leader and try and make the rest of the country forget that it has actually been the conservatives who have been prime minister since 2010. that is what they probably will do. >> what would be the future for the opposition? i assume they would like to seize the moment. but ultimately, despite statements made by the opposition, we are still talking about the man who led his party to landslide victory in 2019 and for many, still remains invincible. >> kevin is right, for opposition parties, boris johnson is the perfect opponent. for the scottish in edinburgh, he is the perfect opponent.

even for the u.k. labour party, he is the perfect opponent. we all believe he should go because that is the right thing. there should be consequences for your actions in this country, especially when you occupy the highest office. as much as it would be electorally fantastic for everyone who is not conservative for boris johnson to be in place in time for the next election, it is the right thing for him to go and i am sure conservative mps will not be motivated by doing the right thing. they will be motivated by their own self-interest. they will be seeing the same polling as the rest of us. support across -- support of the so-called redwall in northern ireland has been seriously eroded. they will be looking at their own self-interest. do they really want to keep him as party leader if it is going to cost them their own seat and job? i think that is going to be what pushes more conservative mps

over the edge and i agree he will not be leader of the conservative party in the next election. he put together an agenda to lead his party and unite the country. if you think of the most memorable things he has done in recent weeks, one was announcing a windfall tax that the opposition forced them into. it is watered down version but it wasn't the conservatives. the only conservative policy i can remember from the past few weeks is that they are bringing back imperial measurements. boris johnson doesn't have an agenda, he has always wanted to be prime minister. he doesn't actually want to do the job of prime minister. >> good the economy his last chance to win the hearts and minds of the british people? particularly if he manages to fix the issues of inflation and domestic energy costs? >> of course, that would be a dramatic turnaround.

but we will have to manage expectations. in reality, the cost-of-living crisis is being shared across the world right now, people manage it better than other people. and maybe we have some way to roll on that subject. but there is something to the idea that he has to now show leadership. it is what i said at the start. if there is no leadership coming from boris now, he is sunk as prime minister and leader the conservative party. his only chance is going to be to put together an agenda that first gives some hope to his party that their interests are being met. and secondly, convincing the country that their interests and concerns are being met in that way. he is a very good vision person and a very good motivator. look at the work he has done in ukraine. he essentially let the world on that. yes, president biden joined in

as well, but if you compare where the europeans are to where the british have been, boris has come up and it has been one of his finest hours. if he can transfer that level of leadership to the domestic agenda, it is a big ask, but if he can't, there is a route out of this for him because i think people bond to that. >> what does it mean for political life in the u.k.? are we likely to see more political infighting and divisions and posturing in the near future? >> the biggest consequence of what has happened, which all of us will agree on, is the uncertainty. and it is a remarkable fact to remember that, in december 2019, 43.6% of the popular vote in written -- in britain, the general election, voted for the conservative party led by boris johnson. it is an incredible story of

what can change in a very short time, less than three years. and yes, there is uncertainty. we have to try -- and my job is to advise clients, public-sector charities and businesses on what is next, the reality is now that boris johnson's agenda, whatever that turns out to be, is going to be good difficult to get through in parliament. because i go back to the fact that only 211 out of 650 british mps think he is the man for the job. of course it is uncertain. if it wasn't for ukraine, i think he would have lost the vote last night. because he has done what i expect any prime minister to have done, which is leading from courage -- leading with courage from the front. but it is going to be the most incredibly volatile and uncertain time in british

politics up until the last possible day of the general election in december 2024. and that will have implications internationally. because you will probably see a different set of leaders going into the general election, and a new prime minister. that is more likely now in my opinion. >> when you look at the legacy of boris johnson, people have been talking about his eccentric behavior. but when you look at the start of the pandemic, he was late to respond. however, the way he responded later, by maximizing the vaccine drive, opening society when most of europe was skeptical about that move, the way he has been handling the ukraine crisis, gives you an indication this is someone who is going to fight for his political survival. >> it indicates that boris johnson will fight for one thing -- his own job. not for the public. there are steps he could have taken throughout the pandemic

that would have saved more lives and he did not do it. what we see now is a man who is fighting really, really are -- but to keep his own job. if i think of boris johnson's legacy these past couple years, i think about the cut to universal credit putting millions of families back in crisis, the devastation to public services, in the past few months, he may have shown the leadership we would expect from any british prime minister in ukraine. but this is the leader of a conservative party who has accepted incredibly large donations from associates of vladimir putin and has done nothing to clean up money laundering in london that finances the kremlin and others. and even the steps they are taking are inadequate. it is not enough to only be the kind of prime minister capable of putting effort in when your own job is on the line. prime minister should be putting in effort every single day for the whole country, for the planet as a whole.

boris johnson doesn't do that because he has always wanted to be prime minister. he never wanted to do the job of prime minister. and we need someone who will do that job. we need someone who needs to do the job, not somebody who wants to be inside the building. >> who do you think has potential to become the successor of boris johnson? liz trust? ben wallace? richard sanna? benny waldron? benny hunt? >> they all have negatives and vulnerabilities attached to them. there is quite a number of people who could very happily make it to be prime minister. the question is at the moment, it is boris johnson's to lose as such.

he has an opportunity now to come out swinging in the manner we saw him before. and saying he only asked what his job is at stake on the decisions she made during covid had nothing to do with his job, big decisions for the country to push forward, but what is interesting is, he has gotten the big calls right in the past two years. the question is now, on the biggest call of all, the agenda for this country going forward, is he going to get that right? this will be the test. will he be able to speak to people in the street and say, i know what your concerns are, i feel the same as you and this is what i intend to do? that is when he won the majority in 2019, he was able to address that. the question now is, can he summon the spirit of that again in difficult circumstances and providing winning combination? the answer rests solely on that question. >> the labour party seems to be

making gains in the latest surveys. however, do you see the potential for the labour party to take over in the upcoming general elections? and do you think public opinion is going to be willing to change leadership against the backdrop of an economy, the leadership end the war in ukraine? >> the labour party under kier starmer is more electable and more credible than at any time in many years. as kier himself would say as leader of the labour party, it was a very bad defeat in 2019, the labour party's worst result since the 1930's. and you don't automatically earn the right to govern just because the other side are messing it up. that is not enough to hope to

win by default. i think the challenge for kier starmer and the labour party is to outline a vision of what britain looks like under his leadership. and that job is not yet complete, as he would say. but one thing he does have in his favor is that people trust him more. they think he has integrity. i think the theory we just heard about what boris johnson could do is fine. but i think every piece of evidence suggests the british public are not listening and don't believe morris -- boris anymore. care starmer challenges and increases his personality and outlines that vision for the country, that will be the challenge for the green party my colleague represents here tonight. that is the challenge. although labor are doing much better than they were. >> what was the problem with boris johnson, his personal

behavior or the substance of the legacy itself? >> the substance of his time in office has done far more damage to the british public that his behavior. his behavior is shocking -- lying to parliament, lying to the public. that is unacceptable. but this is a prime minister who presided over putting a huge number of families back into financial crisis, he caused the funding crisis. he presided over arms sales to the worst human rights abusers on the planet. a government that greenlighted a gas field in the north sea after hosting the cop 26 climate summit. those are the pressing reasons why we need a change of government in the u.k. ny scotland needs to leave the u.k. >> we will have to leave it there, thank you very much.

and thank you for watching. you can see the program again anytime by visiting our websit, aljazeera.com. you can also join us on facebook and twitter. goodbye, for now. ♪

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