Momentum grows behind Johnson for UK PM

Elizabeth Piper and Kylie MacLellan |

Deposed British PM Boris Johnson is proving an increasingly popular choice for the top job.
Deposed British PM Boris Johnson is proving an increasingly popular choice for the top job.

Three senior ministers threw their weight behind Boris Johnson to return as British prime minister, after Liz Truss’s resignation triggered a contest to quickly replace her as Conservative Party leader.

Former defence minister Penny Mordaunt became the first candidate to officially declare on Friday, but Johnson and Rishi Sunak, once his finance minister, led potential contenders as candidates canvassed support ahead of voting next week.

With the Conservatives holding a large majority in parliament and able to ignore calls for a general election for another two years, the new party leader will become prime minister – Britain’s fifth in six years.

Those seeking to replace Truss, who quit on Thursday after six chaotic weeks, must secure 100 nominations from Conservative lawmakers by Monday. Truss herself succeeded Johnson after he was ousted by his colleagues in July.

The party hopes the contest will revive its ailing fortunes. Opinion polls suggest the Conservatives would be all but wiped out if a national election were held now.

Johnson has not formally announced he will run but momentum was growing behind him, with business minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and levelling-up minister Simon Clarke giving him their backing. Influential defence minister Ben Wallace said he was leaning towards supporting the former leader.

A Reuters tally of Conservative lawmakers who have made public declarations of support put Sunak on 59 backers, Johnson on 30 and Mordaunt on 16.

A return to the top would be an extraordinary comeback for Johnson, who remains popular with party members, although a YouGov poll of 3429 adults conducted on Friday found 52 per cent of Britons would be unhappy to see him return as prime minister.

“He can turn it around again,” Conservative lawmaker Paul Bristow told LBC radio. “Boris Johnson can win the next general election.”

But some queried whether Johnson, who left office comparing himself to a Roman dictator twice brought into power to fight crises, could clinch 100 nominations. His three-year premiership was blighted by scandals and allegations of misconduct.

Will Walden, who previously worked for Johnson, said the former leader was returning from holiday and taking soundings.

The Financial Times said a Johnson comeback would be “farcical”.

Sunak, the former Goldman Sachs analyst who became finance minister just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit and was runner-up to Truss in the last leadership contest, is the bookmakers’ favourite, followed by Johnson. Mordaunt is again placed third.

The winner will be announced on Monday or next Friday.

Truss, whose economic plans proved disastrous, will be Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister.

The sight on Thursday of yet another unpopular premier making a resignation speech in Downing Street underscored how volatile British politics has become since the 2016 Brexit vote.

Johnson, the face of the Brexit campaign, led his party to victory at the last general election in 2019 prompting many Conservatives to argue that he alone has a mandate as leader. But members of the public were not all convinced.

Opposition parties, some newspapers and even a few Conservative lawmakers have called for an election to be held.

The Conservatives “cannot respond to their latest shambles by yet again simply clicking their fingers and shuffling the people at the top without the consent of the British people,” Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said.

“They do not have a mandate to put the country through yet another experiment.”

The next leader will inherit an economy bound for recession, with rising interest rates and inflation over 10 per cent leaving millions facing a cost-of-living squeeze.

Surveys on Friday showed gloomy British shoppers reining in spending, while worse-than-expected public borrowing figures underscored the economic challenges ahead.

Reuters