‘Massive majority’: Tory allies strive to put positive spin on Boris Johnson vote

Backers play down large rebellion, hailing third mandate' and saying Ukraine leader is punching the air'

• UK politics live - latest updates

Boris Johnson has hailed the convincing result" of Monday's confidence vote and said he was grateful to colleagues for their support.

But others have pointed to the contortions that some of those colleagues have had to adopt to spin success out of the fact that 148 of Johnson's own MPs want him ousted as party leader - from claiming the BBC used graphics that made the prime minister look like Hannibal Lecter to stating that because the result was not as bad as they feared, it was a good win.