<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy is fighting for his political life after a right-wing rebel launched a formal bid to oust him.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Responding to the move by Matt Gaetz of Florida, Mr McCarthy posted on social media: "Bring it on."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tensions between the two Republicans boiled over at the weekend after the Speaker passed a bill with the help of Democrats to fund government agencies.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">No US Speaker has ever been ousted by such a rarely filed motion to vacate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The leadership has two days to bring up the measure for a vote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Speaker is second in the line of succession for the presidency after the US vice-president. He or she sets the lower house of Congress' legislative priorities, controls committee assignments, and can make or break an American president's agenda.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The deal late on Saturday that averted a government shutdown left out $6bn (£5bn) of funding for Ukraine because Mr Gaetz and other ultraconservatives insist the US has spent too much funding that country's war with Russia.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr McCarthy, a California congressman, only became Speaker in January after 15 rounds of voting when he was able to win over a key group of right-wing Republicans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Gaetz, a persistent thorn in Mr McCarthy's side, was one of the Republicans who repeatedly voted against him - and even until the end the Florida lawmaker abstained from voting.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">During the political horse-trading before he ultimately won the gavel, Mr McCarthy agreed to a change of rules that would allow any single lawmaker member to call for a vote to oust the Speaker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Matt Gaetz (left) and Kevin McCarthy in January during the fractious speakership vote</div><div style="text-align: justify;">That paved the way to Monday's motion to vacate.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a speech on the House floor on Monday, Mr Gaetz said Mr McCarthy must disclose the details of a deal he made with the White House to bring new Ukraine funding to a vote in separate legislation soon.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr McCarthy has said there is "no side deal on Ukraine", adding that he does "not know who is bringing that up".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Gaetz, a Trump ally, had already threatened to file the motion in recent weeks, saying he would do so if a short-term government spending bill was passed with help from Democrats.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After filing the motion, Mr Gaetz told a crowd of reporters: "When we stand here a week from now, I won't own Kevin McCarthy anymore.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"He won't belong to me. So if the Democrats want to adopt him, they can adopt him."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Gaetz told reporters outside the Capitol on Monday night that he would vote for Louisiana Republican, Steve Scalise - currently deputy to Mr McCarthy - to succeed the Speaker.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Asked earlier on Monday whether his actions were plunging the institution into turmoil, Mr Gaetz told reporters: "You talk about chaos as if it's me forcing a few votes and filing a few motions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Real chaos is when the American people have to go through the austerity that is coming if we continue to have $2 trillion annual deficits."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Tom McClintock, a California Republican, chastised Mr Gaetz before his floor speech saying he could not "conceive of a more counterproductive and self-destructive course" than removing a Speaker of the same party.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr McClintock said: "I implore my Republican colleagues to look past their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests and their selfish views."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It would take a simple majority of the House to remove the Speaker in a floor vote. Republicans control the chamber by a narrow 221-212 majority.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">According to the rules of the chamber, the Speaker is required to keep a list of individuals who could act as a temporary replacement in case the role is ever vacated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If Mr McCarthy were voted out, this list would be made public and the person at the top of it would be named Speaker pro tempore until elections were held in the chamber for a new leader of the majority party in the chamber.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Now Democrats must decide if they will step in and vote to help the Speaker keep his job.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Democrats are unhappy with Mr McCarthy after he recently approved the launch of a congressional inquiry to see if there is enough evidence to impeach President Joe Biden.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Left-wing New York lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN on Sunday her fellow Democrats might be interested in politically bailing out Mr McCarthy if they can extract concessions from him.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The rare procedural tool to remove a Speaker has only been used twice in the past century and never successfully.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was last used in 2015 against Speaker John Boehner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The motion to remove him failed but it built enough pressure on Mr Boehner that, unable to unite his caucus, he announced his resignation two months later.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Before then it was last used in 1910. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>