Boris Johnson arrived in London back from his holiday this morning
(Picture: Sky News )Boris Johnson has arrived back in the UK ahead of his expected entry into the Tory leadership race.
Mr Johnson arrived at Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning with his family after breaking off a holiday in the Dominican Republic following Liz Truss’s forced resignation on Thursday.
Sky News photographed the ex-Prime Minister and his wife Carrie Johnson in economy on an overnight British Airways flight back from the Caribbean with their children and said the MP received "one or two boos" as he boarded.
The flight, which was being tracked by around 7,000 users of the FlightRadar24 website, landed 47 minutes behind schedule.
Mr Johnson’s allies have said he is "up for it" but is yet to officially announce his intent to run in the contest. Penny Mordaunt is the only one of three to formally announce her bid to become Prime Minister.
Mr Johnson does, however, have the support of six Cabinet ministers, including Ben Wallace, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Simon Clarke, Chris Heaton-Harris, Alok Sharma and Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
Priti Patel and Nadine Dorries have also pledged their support for the former Prime Minister.
Some MPs, however, have warned they would resign the Tory whip and sit in the Commons as independents if Mr Johnson returns to Downing Street.
Dominic Raab, who is backing Mr Sunak, said on Saturday, that the party would be going backwards if it elected Mr Johnson, telling BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The challenge is this Committee on Privileges and Standards is entering a new phase, there’s going to be oral testimony from people from Number 10.
“He’s going to have to give oral testimony and I just can’t see in practice how the new prime minister, in office latest next Friday, could give the country the attention, the focus that it needs and at the same time be giving testimony and be answering all of those questions. So I don’t say it with any relish. I’m sad about that situation.
“We cannot go backwards. We cannot have another episode of the Groundhog Day, of the soap opera of Partygate. We must get the country and the government moving forward.”
Tory MPs will vote on Monday, and two candidates will be put forward to the Tory membership unless one pulls out, with a result being announced on Friday.
Candidates have until 2pm on Monday to secure the 100 nominations, limiting the ballot to a maximum of three candidates.
Supporters of Mr Johnson believe that if he can make it to the last two, he will win in the final online ballot of party activists with whom he remains hugely popular.
Andrew Stephenson, MP for Pendle told BBC Breakfast: “It will be the challenge for whoever is leader of the party to unite the party. I think it is important that all MPs respect the result of this election and unite behind our new leader.
"I think what we have seen in the last few days is some of the MPs who resigned and called for Boris to go at the start of the summer have now said they would like to see him put himself forward. They’ve admitted they were wrong. I know that many others are waiting for him to make a decision before they go public.
"I think Boris is someone with a proven track record who delivered Brexit, he delivered the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe. He ensured this country led the international coalition against Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine.
"I believe he is a tried-and-tested leader and it is time to bring back Boris."
