“Better Call Boris”; Johnson and Rishi Sunak stand out in the race to be the British Prime Minister

Out of power for a few months, the king of comeback Boris Johnson He is again proposed as the new leader of the Conservative Party in Government and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The man who was forced to resign as prime minister in July, brought down by some of the very lawmakers he now hopes will support him, is, according to Conservatives and a former adviser, groping to see if he has the backing to allow him to return to office. can.

It would be an extraordinary political resurrection for the former journalist, who left office mired in scandal but haughty, charging that he was brought down by a “herd,” a reference to conservative lawmakers who turned against him.

But the question is whether he will be able to convince the dozens of lawmakers who deserted him that he is now the person who can unite the party and turn around declining Conservative fortunes, winning over voters increasingly concerned about the cost of living. .

In September, in his last speech as prime minister, Johnson, 58, compared himself to a rocket that had fulfilled its mission and to a Roman dictator who, in old age, left his farm to take control of the state and fight against an invasion.

“Like Cincinato, I return to my plow,” he said outside the door of 10 Downing Street.

Consul Cincinnatus was recalled to Rome a second time to avert a crisis, leading some to anticipate that Johnson was already planning his return.

To some conservative lawmakers, Johnson is a powerhouse of votes, capable of appealing across the country not only with his celebrity but also with his energetic optimism. To others, he is a liability, a man whose flaws were brutally exposed during his time as prime minister, when colleagues in the Downing Street office broke Covid-19 rules to party when the rest of Britain was under lockdown. a strict confinement.

Quiet life?

When Johnson left Downing Street, his advisers said he was going to embrace a quieter life, no longer being “public property” and able to make more money on the speaking circuit. One of them said that he was considering the possibility of creating a foundation to help Ukraine, of which he has been a strong advocate against Russia.

After her successor as prime minister, Liz Trussresigned on Thursday after just six weeks in power, the Ukrainian government’s Twitter account even posted, then deleted, a meme that read “Better Call Boris.”

On Friday, a former adviser said Johnson was returning from a Caribbean vacation to assess whether he could get the 100 votes of lawmakers he needs to enter the leadership race.

According to current indications, he is behind his former finance minister, Rishi Sunakwhom some conservatives blame for sparking the rebellion that brought down Johnson.

“It could go up to 100, but I think it will fall just short,” said a Conservative lawmaker, who is taking the weekend to decide whether to support Sunak or Penny Mordaunt, the third-placed former defense minister. and that is seen as a new face.

Another Conservative lawmaker expressed hope that Johnson would run, arguing that, at a time when the party’s fortunes have never been worse, he is the politician who can turn things around.

There is one factor Johnson cannot escape: he is being investigated by Parliament’s Privileges Committee to determine whether he lied to the House of Commons about the lockdown-breaking parties. If ministers are found to have knowingly misled Parliament, they are expected to resign.

And he may be the wrong person to unite a party that is deeply divided after seeing four prime ministers in six years, a Conservative lawmaker has said.

Johnson’s former adviser, Will Walden, said his former boss would only show up if victory was assured.

“Boris hates to lose and I suspect he won’t if he doesn’t get the threshold of 100 MPs needed,” Walden told the BBC. “The country needs an adult and serious leader (…) Boris had the chance of him, let’s move on.”