{O/C} Over to Britain, where Boris Johnson has eluded an partygate-induced ouster in a 211-148 vote.
But members of his Conservative Party were split over the motion that's put paid to his reputation.
{Take SOT}
{Soundbite}
GRAHAM BRADY, Chairman of the 1922 Committee: And therefore, I can announce that the Parliamentary Party does have confidence in...
{VO}
The dicey no-confidence vote in parliament is now water under the bridge for a triumphant Boris Johnson.
But with his reputation sullied, the only words he could muster were, he still has that fire in his belly.
{Soundbite}
BORIS JOHNSON, British Prime Minister: This is a very good result for politics and for the country. Just...it's just...I do, just in this sense I think it's a convincing result, a decisive result on what it means --- As a government, we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to the people.
{VO}
Yet grinding on with a nearly becalmed government will not be a cinch. This given the disquieting scale of rebellion within his own Conservative Party -- 148 MPs voted against him, a manifestly Pyrrhic victory.
The pro-Tory Daily Telegraph termed it a "hollow victory."
Former Tory leader William Hague wrote that the Rubicon had already been crossed, portraying the vote as a telling sign of widespread discontent over the MP's handling of the scandal.
Some Tories agree.
{Soundbite}
ROGER GALE, Conservative MP:
Unfortunately, the issue can't be settled like that. A third, over a third of the parliamentary party has expressed no confidence in the prime minister. A prime minister of honour would look at the figures and accept the fact that he has lost the support of a significant portion of his party and consider his position.
{VO}
The opposition party leader gloated over the back-stabbing.
{Soundbite}
KEIR STARMER, Labour Leader: They (Conservative MPs) have ignored the British public and hitched themselves and their party firmly to Boris Johnson and everything that he represents.
{VO}
There are ineluctably misgivings about the Prime Minister's uncanny ability to cast aside even more scandals.
The vote was sparked after months of mounting discontent over the "partygate" revelations.
Johnson still has to surmount stratospheric energy and food bill hurdles in addition to the fallout from Britain's 2016 vote to leave the European Union.
He was fined 50 pounds by London's police for attending one party under COVID lockdowns, making him the country's first prime minister to have flouted the law while in office.
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