On vacation for just over a month, Boris Johnson had to give up swimming shorts and a landing net, recalled by duty. Farewell to the Caribbean, and return to London for “BoJo”, candidate for an unlikely return to Downing Street after the resignation of Liz Truss. The Conservatives must choose a new leader on October 28, a blitz campaign that sees three names emerge: the current Minister for Relations with Parliament Penny Mordaunt, who formalized her candidacy on Friday, Rishi Sunak, the former Minister of Finance who had lost in early September against Liz Truss, and therefore ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July after a succession of scandals.
His fight with Rishi Sunak dominates the headlines on Saturday. “Johnson and Sunak lead race as unity hopes fade,” headlines The Independent. “Conservative tribes go to war,” writes The Guardian. If the former Prime Minister has not formalized his candidacy, he said he was “ready” during a meeting with his supporters, says MP James Duddridge. And he already has 71 sponsorships out of the 100 required, to be submitted Monday afternoon at the latest.
The ghost of partygate
Rishi Sunak, whose resignation from the Johnson government, followed by around sixty others, had led to that of his boss, has not yet entered the race either. He has remained extremely low-key since losing to Liz Truss in early September. But he is already qualified. “I’m sure Rishi Sunak will show up. He is the ideal candidate, ”said Dominic Raab, ex-Minister of Justice, on Sky News. “If you look at the economic challenge we have, he is the one who has always been right about what we need,” he said.
“We cannot go back. We cannot have another episode (…) of the partygate soap opera “, the illegal parties in Downing Street during the anti-Covid confinement, he also said. The last months of Johnson’s mandate were indeed marked by several scandals, including that of the “partygate” in which the police considered that he had broken the law. The former mayor of London is still the subject of an investigation by the Committee on Parliamentary Standards which could, in theory, lead to his suspension from Parliament, or even his expulsion as an MP.
“I’ll be back”
“I don’t see how the new Prime Minister, who will take office next Friday at the latest, could give the country the attention it needs and, at the same time, testify and answer all these questions…”, said Dominic Raab. Former Conservative Party leader William Hague has warned a return of Boris Johnson would result in a “death spiral” for the party. “It’s probably the worst idea I’ve heard in my 46 years as a Conservative Party member,” he told Times Radio.
But Boris Johnson can always count on strong support. For Conservative MP Andrew Stephenson, “he is a proven leader”. “Not only did he give us this historic victory in the 2019 general election, he also got Brexit done, he put in place the fastest vaccine deployment in Europe, he stood by our allies in Ukraine,” he added.
Once the sponsorship deposits are closed, the deputies will vote and, if there are two candidates remaining, the 170,000 party members will have to decide between them by an online vote by October 28. In the event of a single candidate, he would enter Downing Street directly at the start of the week. The “hasta la vista, baby!” » Launched by Boris Johnson on July 20, when he left Parliament, was he in fact an « I’ll be back »?