The leader of the Tory party won the majority of his co-party members’ votes, which came in as no surprise as Johnson held a significant lead in front of Jeremy Hunt and the other candidates for the entire campaign lasting a little less than a month.
According to Bloomberg, one of the first things that Johnson did following the announcement of the news, was to gather the Conservative MPs and assure them that he does not intend to hold an election in an attempt to win over the polarized cabinet. [source] Theresa May had previously decided to hold such a vote, looking for a potential resolution to the deadlock of the Brexit negotiations, which had divided the Parliament to the point where no camp had sufficient majority of MP votes to push forward any proposals. However, failing to win the majority of the votes in the election which she had called for, had the exact opposite effect of polarizing the cabinet even further, which ultimately caused May to step down.
Thus, tory MPs feared that Johnson might repeat the same mistakes by impulsively calling for a snap election, which would have been an enormous risk even for the extravagant Johnson. Instead, he reassured his fellow Tories by dismissing such possibilities and assured them that his initial proposal to deliver Brexit with or without a deal was still his prime agenda.
Even though Boris Johnson is a well-known Eurosceptic and a jarring populist, his appointment to 10 Downing street places him in the unique position to finish the work of Theresa May, with a renewed vigour. Undoubtedly his persona is exceptionally divisive and incites heated discussions in society; however, Johnson has one critical advantage over May, and that is his intact credibility.
Theresa May had lost the trust of her own party members a long time ago, which meant that she could not find the necessary support from the cabinet even amongst MPs who shared similar convictions to her own, simply because they did not trust her to deliver on her promises. Boris Johnson on the other hand, despite his eccentric attitude, has won the support of the majority of the conservatives for the time being and is in a position to endorse even harsh proposals, which Theresa May could not afford to do.
Essentially, Boris Johnson has not entirely ruled out the possibility of securing a trade deal with the EU bloc, and he is in a position to gather the necessary support from the other MPs to strike a deal with the EU before the 31st of October.