Professor dubbed ‘Mystic Meg of politics’ – who correctly predicted the PM’s no confidence vote result – now claims Boris will be out of No10 in SIX MONTHS
- Professor Jonathan Tonge correctly forecasted 211 Tory MPs would back the PM
- He has been dubbed the ‘Mystic Meg of political science’ by fellow academics
- The University of Liverpool expert now says the PM will be gone in six months
An academic dubbed the ‘Mystic Meg of political science’ – after correctly predicting the result of Boris Johnson’s no confidence vote – has now claimed the Prime Minister will be out of power in six months.
Professor Jonathan Tonge, from the University of Liverpool’s politics department, became a social media sensation this week after correctly forecasting 211 Tory MPs would back the PM.
He was only one vote short of a totally on-the-money prediction when he said 147 Tory MPs would vote against Mr Johnson and attempt to boot him out as Conservative leader.
In Monday night’s vote, there were a total of 148 Tory rebels – with Prof Tonge later admitting he didn’t correctly count the number of Conservative MPs.
After his accurate prediction of the vote result, Prof Tonge earned his ‘Mystic Meg’ moniker from fellow academics.
He revealed his annoyance that he didn’t place a bet on the result, but joked that he would soon be offering forecasts for the lottery numbers and the winner of TV’s Love Island.
Professor Jonathan Tonge, from the University of Liverpool’s politics department, became a social media sensation this week after correctly forecasting 211 Tory MPs would back the PM
The academic has now claimed Boris Johnson will be out of power in six months despite being ‘the political escapologist of political escapologists’
After his accurate prediction of the vote result, Prof Tonge earned his ‘Mystic Meg’ moniker from fellow academics
Prof Tonge has now offered his thoughts on how long Mr Johnson might remain as PM following his survival of the no confidence vote.
He told the Guardian: ‘I’d be surprised that if he was still Prime Minister in the autumn. I would say six months, but if anyone can tough it out it is Johnson.’
Prof Tonge claimed the PM was ‘the political escapologist of political escapologists’.
But he forecast Mr Johnson would soon be back in trouble when a third inquiry into the Partygate scandal begins.
The House of Commons’ Privileges Committee is due to look into whether the PM deliberately misled MPs by previously claiming Covid rules were followed at all times in Downing Street.
He added: ‘The difficulty he’s got is that the Privileges Committee won’t pull any punches in its view about whether he misled Parliament.
‘And that will probably do for him.’
Prof Tonge accurately predicted the vote result on Twitter less than an hour before it was officially announced – and then offered to forecast the lottery numbers
On Monday night, less than an hour before the actual result of the no confidence vote was announced, Prof Tonge posted on Twitter: ‘I’ll go for confidence in Johnson 59% (211 votes) to 41% no confidence (147) and delete this tweet at 9.01pm when it’s way out.’
But, to his surprise, he was almost completely correct and his prediction drew astonishment from fellow academics, journalists and politicians.
Although Prof Tonge revealed his spouse was less impressed. He later tweeted: ‘Thanks for very kind comments re VONC forecast.
‘Main items: didn’t have a bet (sobs); you really don’t want my racing tips; Love Island? Liam or Gemma. Will post lottery numbers when rollover.
‘As sceptical other half said though, “first time you’ve been right since marrying me”.’
Last month, Prof Tonge was only slightly out in his prediction for the Northern Ireland elections.
He told the newspaper: ‘I said Sinn Féin would get 26 seats and they got 27. I said the DUP would get 24 seats and they got 25.’
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