Boris Johnson desperately seeks assist for his bid to return as PM

Boris Johnson was on Sunday desperately in search of extra Conservative MPs to assist his comeback bid, as he tried to safe the 100 nominations wanted to enter the poll to grow to be Britain’s subsequent prime minister.

Talks on Saturday night time between Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the previous chancellor and frontrunner within the contest, didn’t end in any “deal” between the 2 contenders. “If there had been a deal, we’d have heard about it by now,” stated one Johnson backer.

Sunak is the favorite to succeed Liz Truss and already has 120 publicly declared nominations, in response to Monetary Occasions evaluation, together with key rightwingers Kemi Badenoch, commerce secretary, and former Brexit minister Steve Baker.

Whereas many Tory MPs would love Johnson to again Sunak to make sure a speedy “coronation” of the previous chancellor, uniting the social gathering, the ex-premier nonetheless believes he could make a return to 10 Downing Road.

Johnson’s allies declare that he would win in a head-to-head battle with Sunak if the competition goes out to the Tory social gathering membership, and the previous prime minister desires his rival to capitulate. “It’s time for Rishi to placed on his ‘massive boy trousers’,” stated one Johnson supporter.

Provided that Johnson has solely about 50 declared Tory MPs supporting him — despite claims from his allies that greater than 100 are prepared to again him — Sunak’s crew don’t consider he has the numbers.

Dominic Raab, a Sunak backer, advised the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that there was no case for a deal, declaring that the previous chancellor had “double the variety of MPs” supporting him in contrast with Johnson.

Raab stated there had not been a deal the place one candidate agreed to face apart, however stated: “What they did have was an excellent dialog in regards to the want for unity.”

However Chris Heaton-Harris, Northern Eire secretary and a Johnson backer, insisted on Sophy Ridge on Sky: “We positively have sufficient numbers.” Johnson urged his supporters to hold on trying to find MPs to again him on an 8am video name on Sunday.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, enterprise secretary and one other backer of Johnson stated: “I’ve been talking to Boris Johnson and clearly he’s going to face. There’s an excessive amount of assist for him.”

Johnson, who returned from a Caribbean vacation on Saturday, is hoping his crew can flip their boasts about surging assist amongst Tory MPs into actuality however time is working out.

Nominations for the Conservative management shut at 2pm on Monday. To enter the competition candidates should safe the backing of 100 Tory MPs out of a complete of 357.

If a couple of candidate reaches that threshold, Tory MPs would chop the competition right down to a shortlist of two. They might then maintain an “indicative vote” on Monday to sign which candidate commanded parliamentary assist, earlier than the ultimate resolution is put to a web based vote of social gathering members.

Beneath that state of affairs a brand new Conservative chief — and Britain’s subsequent prime minister — could be named on Friday. Nonetheless, many Tory MPs hope the competition doesn’t exit to social gathering members, who picked Truss as prime minister over the summer season.

Penny Mordaunt, chief of the Home of Commons, is thus far the one candidate to formally declare they’re standing for the management, however she is trailing far behind Sunak and Johnson.

Mordaunt insisted on Sunday that regardless of having the assist of fewer than 30 MPs she might nonetheless win, telling Kuennsberg: “I’m in it to win it.”

Mordaunt insisted she would additionally safe 100 nominations, however stated: “I’m not sharing my canvassing information.” She added: “I’m very assured about our numbers.” She denied exploring a non-aggression pact with Johnson.

If Johnson made the poll paper and a ultimate shortlist of two, many Tory MPs consider he might win the competition, given he stays in style with grassroots activists.

However Baker, former head of the pro-Brexit European Analysis Group, stated {that a} Johnson comeback must be averted in any respect prices. “It’s a assured nailed-on failure — we can not permit it to occur,” he stated.

Baker and different Sunak supporters level out that Johnson nonetheless faces a parliamentary inquiry into whether or not he lied to MPs in regards to the “partygate” affair. If discovered responsible, Johnson may very well be suspended from parliament and will face a by-election in his Uxbridge constituency.

Raab stated the partygate affair and questions on Johnson’s character would quickly be dominating the information once more: “In a matter of days he’s going to see televised witness testimony together with his personal,” he stated.