UK: Johnson weighs return to power as Truss quits No 10

Boris Johnson is attempting to make an extraordinary political comeback by challenging Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt.

Boris Johnson (R) stands with Rishi Sunak.

Boris Johnson is attempting to make an extraordinary political comeback by challenging Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt for the Tory leadership following the resignation of Liz Truss.

Six weeks after leaving office, the former prime minister has asked allies, donors and the team that helped him to win the 2019 general election to run his campaign for a return to No 10.

In what is expected to be a three-horse race, Johnson is preparing to take on Sunak, the former chancellor who he blames for his removal from office, and Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons.

Johnson’s return to the political arena would divide the Conservative Party even further, with at least three MPs prepared to quit the party rather than serve under him again.

Britain will have a new prime minister within a week under a truncated timetable designed to reassure markets after the turmoil of Truss’s premiership, which is the shortest in history.

She accepted yesterday (Thursday) that she could not deliver “the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party” after being told by Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbenchers, that she had lost the support of the parliamentary party. Her resignation came after four tumultuous weeks in which her political authority was shredded by the fallout from a tax-cutting mini-budget, almost all of which has been reversed.

The 1922 Committee, which oversees the Conservative leadership contest, has said that each candidate must gain the support of 100 MPs by Monday lunchtime to stand in the contest.

This will limit the field to a maximum of three candidates who will go forward to a ballot that afternoon. The final two - unless a consensus on who should be leader is reached - will be put to an online ballot of party members, with the result due to be announced a week today (Friday).

Last night (Thursday) Johnson had 20 supporters. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the business secretary, is said to be helping to run his campaign. The former prime minister, who is expected to return from his holiday in the Caribbean shortly, is said to be waiting to see if he is likely to get enough nominations before formally declaring his candidacy.

He has told friends that he believes he can turn the Tories around and argues that he is the only candidate with a mandate to lead, given his general election victory in 2019. He believes he can win a ballot of party members.

Sunak is set to launch his second campaign for the party leadership on a platform of fiscal conservatism, weeks after he was defeated by Truss. Last night (Thursday) he had the support of more than 30 Conservative MPs.

His campaign is likely to argue that Johnson cannot be trusted with the public finances at such a precarious moment, The Times has been told.

It is understood that there have been discussions between allies of Johnson and Sunak in recent weeks, with the former chancellor said to be keen to reach a reconciliation. One source said that although Johnson had been preparing for a leadership bid his instinct was that it was too early for a comeback. Some allies are also urging him not to throw his hat in the ring. “Now is not the time for Boris,” one said. “They will be desperate by June next year.”

The privileges committee investigation into whether Johnson misled MPs during the Downing Street parties saga has not yet begun. If the committee finds he was in contempt of parliament he could be suspended as an MP, and potentially face a by-election in his Uxbridge & South Ruislip constituency.

Mordaunt, who is expected to launch her leadership campaign today (Friday), will pitch herself as the unity candidate. She believes the “psychodrama” between Johnson and Sunak will enable her to present herself as the “clean” candidate.

She came a close third to Truss in the previous leadership race.

The threshold of 100 supporters is expected to deter most other candidates. Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, was weighing up his options last night (Thursday) while Kemi Badenoch, the trade secretary, believes she has a “mountain to climb” to get on to the ballot.

Whoever wins the contest will face one of the most daunting in-trays of any prime minister since the Second World War, with immediate decisions on how to fill a pounds 40 billion hole in the public finances as well as the cost of living crisis and a struggling NHS.

Truss became the shortest-serving prime minister in British history after announcing her resignation after only 44 days. When she leaves Downing Street she will have been in office for 52 days, a period shorter than the leadership contest in which she was elected.

Her decision to quit means she beats the record of George Canning, who died in 1827 after 119 days in office.

In a statement from Downing Street, Truss insisted that “our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth”.

But she accepted that after weeks of turmoil she would not be able to achieve her “vision for a low-tax, high-growth economy that would take advantage of the freedoms of Brexit.”

With, Henry Zeffman, Chris Smyth and Matt Dathan

The Times