UK: Can Boris Johnson really come back?

Published on: 21/10/2022 – 16:50 While Liz Truss has just resigned from the post of Prime Minister, her predecessor Boris Johnson is seeking Friday to obtain the necessary sponsorships to try to take over the post. If he is not yet a candidate, “BoJo” seems to be among the best placed in the internal election for the Conservative Party, which must give birth to a new Prime Minister in a week maximum. Some adore him, others are ready to quit if he returns to Downing Street. In a new twist, Boris Johnson is seeking, on Friday, October 21, to obtain the necessary sponsorship to try to become British Prime Minister again. On vacation in the Caribbean, he is not yet a candidate, no more than Rishi Sunak, the former Minister of Finance with whom he is at loggerheads. But the two men seem best placed in this accelerated election, internal to the Conservative party, which must give birth to a new Prime Minister in a week maximum, after the resignation of Liz Truss, ephemeral leader for 44 days. to stability after several months of a very bad political soap opera featuring divisiveness, betrayal and incompetence, Boris Johnson, 58, the charismatic former Brexit hero who resigned three and a half months ago, disavowed after a series of scandals, would prepare his return. “Boris Johnson tells the Tories: I can save the party from political annihilation,” headlined the Tory daily The Daily Telegraph. “Boris against Rishi, the fight for the soul of the Tories”, headlines the Daily Mail, very pro-Johnson. An unofficial count made by the Guido site at midday counted 58 deputies for Rishi Sunak, 54 for Boris 20 for Penny Mordaunt, Minister for Relations with Parliament. It takes 100 sponsorships by Monday 2 p.m. to be able to be a candidate, out of 357 Conservative MPs.>> Read also – United Kingdom: Boris Johnson, the scandal machineBloody weekendThe negotiations behind the scenes are going well. Boris Johnson is preparing to return to London and the weekend promises to be bloody. Because Boris Johnson is deeply divisive. For his supporters, he is the only one to be legitimate, having offered a historic majority to the Conservatives in the 2019 legislative elections. A great speaker, he has also kept his aura with thousands of party members, who could have to decide next week. “Boris or bankruptcy” said Friday the Secretary of State for Energy, Jacob Rees-Mogg. Defense Minister Ben Wallace, very popular among the base, also said he “leans” towards Boris, in this drama with increasingly Shakespearian overtones. But many Tory MPs remember the drunken parties in Downing Street during the anti-Covid confinements, his repeated lies and his lack of discipline which had undermined confidence, leading to dozens of resignations in the government and his own on July 7. “He is currently the subject of a investigation by a parliamentary commission (…), it is almost 100% certain that the commission of privileges will agree that he misled Parliament”, recalled the conservative MP Richard Graham on Times Radio. This return would send his party “directly into the mess we were in when he was in power”, commented another elected official. “Boris Johnson is the English Berlusconi” “Winning the support of MPs is very far from certain, but if he does, he will almost certainly be Prime Minister,” according to The Times. The party base has remained largely loyal to Boris Johnson. According to a YouGov poll, 42% of party members think he can be “a very good” replacement for Liz Truss, and 21% a “fairly good” replacement. Rishi Sunak, who lost to Liz Truss this summer, sometimes considered the traitor who led to the departure of Boris Johnson, is at 29% and 31%, Penny Mordaunt is at 20% and 34%. In a context of economic crisis and social, the Labor opposition, largely in the lead in the polls, is calling for early general elections. The centrist Liberal Democrats (“lib-dems”) want to block Boris Johnson’s candidacy, pointing out that he was found guilty of breaking the law during the “partygate”. “Boris Johnson is the English Berlusconi” , denounced Daisy Cooper, deputy leader of the “lib-dems”. “Hasta la vista” had concluded Boris Johnson in July, during his last question session in Parliament. “Mission largely accomplished, for the moment,” he added. He probably dreams of following in the footsteps of his hero Winston Churchill, who returned to power in 1939. But Churchill had waited 10 years, not six weeks. With AFP