Speaking to his fellow Conservative lawmakers, Prime Minister Boris Johnson argued that the best was yet to come if they continued to support him, and that he would turn out to be an election winner for the second time.
“I will lead you to victory again and the winners will be the people of this country,” Mr Johnson said, according to excerpts from the text released by a party official.
Johnson also pledged to cut taxes and focus on the problems Britain faces as he prepared for a no-confidence vote on Monday following public outcry over violations of pandemic lockdown rules.
“We can deliver and we can unite,” he said.
Johnson warned that the opposition Labor party would prevail in the next election “if we were foolish enough to descend into a pointless fratricide debate about the future of the party when, frankly, there is no alternative vision I hear.”
James Cleverly, a minister at the State Department, Commonwealth and Development, said Mr Johnson was “in a very serious mode”, and that his speech was “light on jokes and heavy on plans and policy”.
He said he believed Mr Johnson would survive the vote as he put forward a viable plan for the party: “For what he wants to do next, how we deliver on the promises we made in the 2019 general election, how we continue to deliver through very, very difficult times.”
The prime minister is known for making political breakaways, telling his party that there has been “enough evidence over the past 20 years” that it would be wrong to write him off now.
But Steve Baker, an influential pro-Brexit lawmaker who has called on Mr Johnson to resign, said the speech hadn’t changed his vote.
“I have told the Prime Minister that if he broke the law he should go,” Mr Baker said outside the parliament meeting room where Mr Johnson addressed his party. “He’s clearly broken the law, he’s clearly agreed to the law being broken.”
Mr Baker said he had helped Mr Johnson become Prime Minister and described the situation as “a terrible moment”.
Asked what he expected the vote to be, Mr Baker said it was “highly likely” that Mr Johnson would retain the support of a majority of the party’s lawmakers, although there was “a fairly large vote would be against him.”
“But what that means over the months, I don’t know,” he added.