LONDON: Former prime minister Boris Johnson on Saturday (Oct 22) returned to Britain from a holiday to launch an audacious political comeback, as Conservative leadership rival Rishi Sunak reached the minimum threshold to contest the UK’s top job.
Johnson cut short a Caribbean trip to join the race to replace outgoing leader Liz Truss, with allies telling British media he was “up for it”.
The divisive 58-year-old Brexit architect only handed over power in early September, two months after announcing his resignation following a Tory revolt over a slew of scandals.
His apparent bid to return to office just weeks later has already been decried by opposition politicians, and even some in his own fractured ruling party who argue that both it and the country need stability and unity.
“It is simply not right to risk repeating the chaos (and) confusion of the last year,” said David Frost, a right-wing formerly loyal minister appointed to the House of Lords by Johnson.
“We must move on,” he urged the Tories, adding they “must get behind a capable leader who can deliver a Conservative programme” who he identified as ex-finance minister Sunak.
Frost’s comments echo Dominic Raab – Johnson’s deputy prime minister – who told Sky News an imminent parliamentary inquiry into the “Partygate” scandal that dogged his former boss could prove too distracting.
Raab said former finance minister Sunak’s economic experience meant he was the “standout candidate”.
Late Friday, Sunak’s allies in parliament said he had garnered the nominations of 100 Conservative MPs, the threshold set by the party to stand.
However, both Sunak and Johnson are yet to announce they are running, leaving it to allies to signal their intent.
“HOGWASH”
The Tories were forced into a second, this time expedited, leadership contest since the summer after Truss dramatically announced Thursday she would stand down – just 44 tempestuous days into her tenure.
It followed a disastrous tax-slashing mini-budget that sparked economic and political turmoil which Sunak had predicted.
In a sign of the toll from the tumult, ratings agency Moody’s said Friday it had downgraded Britain’s outlook, blaming in part “heightened unpredictability in policy making”.
Meanwhile, the pound – which hit a record low against the dollar in the mini-budget’s immediate aftermath, but had since rallied – slumped.
Cabinet member Penny Mordaunt, who just missed out on making the final runoff after Johnson quit, became the first to formally declare her candidacy again Friday.
The 49-year-old said she was running for “a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the national interest”. But she is already trailing her rivals by dozens of nominations.
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