When last July Boris Johnson said goodbye to the British Parliament with a “see you later, baby“, Few imagined that this phrase, beyond being a tagline, was actually talking about his possible return to Downing Street. Now, after the collapse of Liz Truss, who resigned this Thursday unable to resist the attacks of his own colleagues rows, Johnson’s name resonates strongly as one of the favorite candidates to be the new prime minister.
He was the political editor of the The Times, Steven Swinford, who on Thursday reported that the previous head of government was thinking of running for the primaries to once again lead the Conservatives and the United Kingdom. He does not, however, have much time to reflect: the dispute to see who will replace Truss has already begunToday, predictably, it will end at the latest on Friday, October 28. The Conservative Party has been forced to appoint a new leader as soon as possible to prevent markets and citizens from becoming (even more) impatient and the labor opposition push to call a general election.
For this reason, in the current dispute over the leadership there will be a maximum of three candidates and to go to the next round of voting, each of them must have 100 supports from the 357 deputies Tories. That means that if only one gets enough ballots he will automatically become the new occupant of 10 Downing Street. That would be Monday at two in the afternoonwhen the first vote is over, according to Sir Graham Brady, president of the 1922 Committee, the body that brings together Conservative parliamentarians without representation in the Government.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
It is not yet known who the three candidates will be, but the popular newly appointed finance minister, Jeremy Hunt and the controversial deputy Michael GoveThey have jumped ship. Among the favorites are Rishi Sunakresponsible for the downfall of Johnson and Truss’s main competitor, and the current leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt. Both have broad grassroots support but are apparently far from as popular as Johnson.
According to a recent survey of YouGov made to members of the Conservative Party, former Prime Minister is the favorite option of 32% of the Toriesfollowed by Sunak (23%), Defense Minister Ben Wallace (10%) and Mordaunt (9%).
credibility crisis
In 2019, Johnson won the general election with an overwhelming majority., which meant that his mandate had the direct support of citizens and in the middle of this year, he survived a vote of confidence. The problem is that his teammates ended up losing faith in him. His tenure was marked by the partygatethe concealment of the sexual scandal of Chris Pincher, then deputy head of the formation tory and an economic crisis that has gone from bad to worse.
[Las siete vidas de Boris Johnson o cómo sobrevivir políticamente al ‘Partygate’]
In this sense, although Boris Johnson is welcome behind closed doors, facing the gallery, his return could seriously damagee the Conservative Party, which appears to be in disarray and is struggling to find a reliable leader capable of offering stability. Truss’s very short tenure, that only lasted 44 dayshas focused on training such a deep crisis of credibility that, for the first time in years, the polls give Keir Starmer’s Labor Party a wide lead over the Conservatives.
Britain deserves better than this revolving door of Tory chaos.
The British people are paying the price for 12 years of failure.
It’s time for a general election and a Labor government. pic.twitter.com/Ej65XFNfVQ
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) October 20, 2022
That is why many legislators, according to the British media, show reluctance to return the keys to Downing Street to the person who was forced to resign just a few months ago. Above all because financial marketswhich have stabilized somewhat in recent days after weeks of instability, are also not very convinced.
[La libra se fortalece tras la dimisión de Truss como primera ministra británica]
As Laura Piedehierro explains in this newspaper, the data collected by the manager Schroders, point to Rishi Sunak as the betting markets’ favorite to succeed Truss, with a 47% chance. His main rival is Penny Mordaunt (27%), while Boris Johnson is relegated to third place (15%).
Despite that, some of his loyal allies and several of his Twitter followers have started calling for his return under the hashtag #BringBackBoris.
