Ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to London on Saturday morning after a vacation in the Caribbean, bolstering speculation of his candidacy in the Downing Street race, but Rishi Sunak, the only one to reach the required 100 endorsements, continued to widen the gap.
After the resignation of Liz Truss, who remained only 44 days in power, three names have emerged in this flash campaign within the Conservative party: the current Minister for Relations with Parliament, Penny Mordaunt, who formalized her candidacy on Friday, Rishi Sunak , the former finance minister who lost to Liz Truss in early September, and former prime minister Boris Johnson, who resigned in July after a succession of scandals.
Boris Johnson waved to the media outside Gatwick Airport mid-morning before getting into a car. Friday evening, an ally of Boris Johnson in Parliament, James Duddridge, had reported an exchange with his “boss”. “He said: ‘We will do it, I am ready’”, according to this deputy.
But the former Prime Minister, who had left Parliament on July 20, launching “Hasta la vista, baby! “, has not yet officially announced his candidacy.
Rishi Sunak, whose resignation from the Johnson government, followed by around sixty others, had led to that of his boss, should “soon” confirm his candidacy, the BBC said at the start of the afternoon on Saturday.
He is the first to have exceeded the threshold of 100 sponsorships required on Friday evening to hope to take the lead of the Conservative Party and therefore win Downing Street.
“The worst idea in 46 years”
Candidates have until Monday afternoon to obtain these sponsorships.
The deputies will vote first 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.
Much of the game was played behind the scenes on Saturday for Johnson and Sunak, who have been at loggerheads since last summer, each trying to secure more sponsorships.
According to the Guido Fawkes site, which closely follows the upheavals of the race, Rishi Sunak had 119 sponsorships on Saturday morning, ahead of Boris Johnson (71) and Penny Mordaunt (25).
Rishi Sunak’s allies were campaigning in the media on Saturday.
Rishi Sunak “is the ideal candidate,” said Dominic Raab, former deputy prime minister, 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 can’t have another episode […] from the soap opera party gate “, the illegal parties in Downing Street during the anti-COVID confinement, he also said.
The last months of Johnson’s mandate were marked by several scandals, including that of the ” party gate in which the police felt he had broken the law.
He is still under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Committee which could, in theory, lead to his suspension from Parliament or even his expulsion as an MP.
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.
Similarly, a close ally of Johnson during the Brexit campaign, David Frost, said on Twitter that we must “move on”. “It’s just not fair to risk repeating the chaos and confusion of last year,” he added.
But Boris Johnson can always count on strong support, such as that of his former interior minister Priti Patel.
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.
The next prime minister will be the fifth since 2016, when Britain voted to leave the European Union.