Back to Boris? Tories still split
After a chaotic spell packed with political crises, Britain finds itself right back where it was before – with some of the same faces competing to become the country’s third prime minister in just eight weeks, and a dumbfounded public watching from the sidelines.
Supporters for the three presumed front runners – Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt and, yes, Boris Johnson – were quick out of the blocks yesterday, making their pitches for why their candidate should get the keys to No 10 Downing Street.
Could Johnson stage an extraordinary comeback? Rumours are swirling that Britain’s 55th prime minister might also want to be its 57th. There’s an active Bring Back Boris movement, and a hashtag #BORISorBUST.
The bookies’ favorite is Rishi Sunak, the former finance minister who fell to Liz Truss in the previous Conservative Party leadership contest. The only formally declared candidate as of yesterday, though, was Penny Mordaunt, the Tory leader in the House of Commons, who is little known by the public but polls well with party members.
There are 357 Conservative MPs, and a candidate needs the singular backing of at least 100 of
them to qualify for a vote among MPs.
The party has set an astonishingly short time frame to select a new leader: Officials have said the contest will be wrapped up by October 28 at the latest. The rules were changed on Friday so that the country can replace Truss quickly.
Dominic Raab, deputy prime minister under Johnson, is among those backing Sunak. So is Johnson’s former health secretary, Sajid Javid, who tweeted that Sunak ‘‘has what it takes to match the challenges’’.
Those in the ‘‘Bring Back
Boris’’ camp argue that Johnson is the only contender who has a national ‘‘mandate’’ to lead, after his whopping 2019 general election victory.
Johnson is the top pick among the 170,000 Conservative Party members, according to polls. But it is not certain if a rebooted Johnson could galvanise the party – or improve its standing with the broader electorate. He was forced to resign after a string of scandals raised questions about his honesty, and his own Conservative MPs concluded that he was unfit to lead.
He is also still under investigation
by the House of Commons for misleading lawmakers over ‘‘Partygate’’, and could yet be suspended from Parliament.
Former Conservative MP Rory Stewart, who is popular among moderates, tweeted: ‘‘Only a nation which was gripped by pessimistic despair and no longer believed that there could be a serious response to its unfolding tragedies would want to take refuge in the leadership of a clown.’’
Mordaunt is polling better with the all-important Conservative Party members than Sunak. Her visibility received a big boost in the waning days of Truss’ tenure when she stood in for the prime minister in Parliament following the dismantling of a controversial economic programme, and ably handled the hostile questions.
Sunak’s supporters are urging Johnson not to stand in the leadership contest, warning that he would leave the Conservative Party in a ‘‘death spiral’’, and that a second term for Johnson would be ‘‘catastrophic’’ for the United Kingdom’s economy.
In an attempt to avoid another bruising leadership battle, senior party figures are seeking to broker a deal between Johnson and Sunak to stand on a united ticket. However, a senior Tory who has worked with both men says the animosity between them is too great for any agreement on who should be prime minister.
Some have argued that the method of choosing a new leader is undemocratic. They will be selected by either the group of 357 Conservative MPs, or, if it does go to the wider party membership, then 170,000 people – hardly the
same as an election for the entire country.
Despite growing calls for a general election, this seems highly unlikely. The Conservative Party is not expected to push for something that, based on current polling, would probably result in its annihilation.