BORIS Johnson’s former aide Henry Newman has hinted that the former PM might be tempted to stand again for leadership of the Conservative Party following the resignation of Liz Truss.
He said: “I think there are some MPs who are very set against Boris. There are some MPs who are ferociously loyal to Boris and remain so and we’ve been hearing from some of those already today.
“There’s a whole raft of MPs in the middle of the parliamentary party, who are not on either of those sides, who just want government to work a bit better, and are deeply frustrated by what they’ve seen over the last 45 days, and want the party to come back together and find a new consensus.
“And I think they’ll be willing to do that around a candidate who can sort of take back control of the tiller and stabilise things.”
Speaking to Gloria De Piero and Mark Longhurst on GB News, he said: “This is obviously a very difficult period for the Conservative Party and the Government. We’ve had the shortest premiership really in history. It’s been a period that I know that the Conservative Party is going to want to try and put behind us.
“By the end of the month on the 28th, we’ll have a new leader, a new Prime Minister, and then just three days later, they’ve got to make that financial statement on which so much depends, trying to chart the course back towards financial stability.
“I think what we’ve seen again, is that the Conservative Party when things aren’t working is willing to be ruthless and to remove prime ministers, which was what we’re always told, that one of the reasons the Conservative Party has been successful historically is its ability to remove party leaders who just simply aren’t working.”
Asked if it was feasible for him to return, he said: “I worked for Johnson for about a year in Downing Street and I was sitting around the edge of the table watching him make some incredibly difficult decisions. My respect grew for him enormously.
“Obviously, you had ended up with a number of MPs wanting to see him removed, but I think we just don’t know now and there’s so much happening so much sort of turmoil that a lot will rest on how the dynamics within the parliamentary party go over the next few days.
“We’re also hearing that there could be a consultation of the party membership…I think this is clearly a race where a lot of different things could happen.”
