Boris Johnson has reportedly held talks with World Economic Forum-affiliated rival Rishi Sunak over the future of the Conservative Party, with a significant number of senior party officials now demanding that the former prime minister stand down before he wins reelection.
As MPs from across the Conservative Parliamentary Party demand Boris Johnson steps back from the race to Number 10, knowing that he would likely win the ballot of ordinary party members if he makes the final two, the former prime minister has met with his main leadership rival Rishi Sunak over the future of the British government.
While the majority of Tory voters and Conservative Party members seem to support returning Johnson as premier — with many of them of the belief that he should never have been removed from the position in the first place — senior figures among its parliamentary elite have openly resisted such a move, seemingly being in favour of Rishi Sunak, explicitly rejected by members in the contest Liz Truss won just weeks ago, being imposed.
It appears that significant effort is now going into preventing Boris Johnson from being presented to Tory members as a possible option, with a meeting being held between the former prime minister and Rishi Sunak on Saturday.
According to a report in The Telegraph, which is close to the Conservative Party, the talks were supposedly on the topic of both men running on a single campaign ticket, in what has been spun as a way of healing divisions.
“Rishi and Boris both have to concede something and recognise their strengths,” a senior MP reportedly said regarding the possible arrangement, with the official reportedly admitting that Sunak lacks widespread support from Tory voters and grassroots members.
However, the party bigwig went on to paint the Johnson ticket as splitting the party — though they stopped short of calling for the former PM to step back.
“Boris needs to recognise that he is as divisive and must try and bring Penny and Rishi together,” the senior insider reportedly said.
So far, it appears that Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were unable to come to some sort of arrangement on Saturday, likely much to the chagrin of a party establishment who wish to see Johnson consigned to history.
In the meantime, it appears that Boris Johnson has managed to acquire the 100 or more necessary MP endorsements to run in the race — a threshold the party apparatus greatly increased for this contest — with a minority of significant figures within the current government coming out to back him over the last number of days.
However, it should be noted that many of the politicians backing Johnson — including the likes of Business Secretary Jacob Rees Mogg, former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, and former Home Secretary Priti Patel — could have ulterior motives for doing so.
For example, Zahawi, Patel, and Dorries have all received serious demotions since Johnson left office, with both Patel and Dorries being forced to return to the backbenches.
Meanwhile, as a major ally of Liz Truss, Rees Mogg is also likely in a vulnerable position should the party establishment resume power, something that would likely incentivise him to back Boris Johnson who — while far from perfect on policy — at least pretends to care about grassroots issues such as Brexit.
Nevertheless, while Boris Johnson’s history of pushing the green agenda and mass immigration and failing to address issues related to Britain’s draconian hate speech laws and transgender ideology in state institutions are no doubt serious causes for concern, many fear that a Britain under WEF-linked, China-backed Sunak would be a far worse fate, with the likes of Nigel Farage saying that the country’s only hope for reform lies with a Johnson victory.
“A spirited Boris Johnson campaign, even with all the wrong policies, will bring us closer to the radical change our country needs,” the arch-Brexiteer wrote in an opinion piece published on Saturday.
“With reform of our broken electoral system in mind, I wish Mr Johnson well with his endeavours,” he added.
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