Boris Johnson has been photographed at an exclusive beach bar in the Dominican Republic as rumours swirl around his potential attempt to return as Prime Minister. The former PM currently has the second-most MPs' nominations for the leadership, placing him some way behind Rishi Sunak and just ahead of Penny Mordaunt - but it's been claimed that he will secure the backing of the 100 MPs required to progress to the next round.
He's spent the last few days in the Caribbean with his wife Carrie, and was photographed relaxing in an exclusive resort on the day that Kwasi Kwarteng was fired as Chancellor - which, believe it or not, was only a week ago. The picture was taken last Friday at around 5pm in a resort that costs over £1,000 per night to stay in.
A British holidaymaker visiting a friend at the island’s Casa De Campo resort spotted the ex-premier looking “chilled out”, MirrorOnline reports.. The tourist told the Mirror: “It’s basically the most exclusive place you can be in the Dominican Republic. It’s quite a big resort, you’ve got exclusive hotels and villas within there - they’re humongous these places.”
READ MORE: The shortest serving Prime Ministers in history as Liz Truss sets new record
The British tourist said that Mr and Mrs Johnson were "quite deep in conversation" on a bench at the resort, which costs £1,076 for a night's stay, or up to £13,250 for a week. The resort also offers golfing packages across three courses at £1,130 a night.
The holidaymaker said the break was "a bit of an escape" for Mr Johnson, who is believed to be planning to fly back to Britain early as he is becoming one of the favourites for the Tory leadership.
The gated complex, which opened as the country's first almost 50 years ago, has eight restaurants along with shops, a beach club, marina, and equestrian centre which has facilities to stage polo matches along with a shooting course.
“They just seemed all right in conversation, fairly relaxed,” the holidaymaker said. “He just seemed fairly chilled out. The place where he was is a very nice part of the Dominican Republic, so it would be hard not to be relaxed where he was.”
The tourist added: “He seemed quite normal to be honest. I didn’t go over or anything like that but just as we were leaving there was someone who I think was French got a photo with him - a girl. He was happy to have his photo taken with her.”
The image of Boris emerges a day after Liz Truss sensationally quit as Prime Minister, just 44 days after the Tories voted her as the head of the Conservative Party.Her predecessor sunbathed on two holidays, taking in a sun-kissed trip to Greece days after returning from a relaxing break at a Slovenian spa following his own resignation in July.
And he had jetted off to the Caribbean by the time Truss was claiming she was “a fighter, not a quitter” during a bruising PMQs . The next day she was on the steps of Downing Street offering her resignation after being told she no longer had the support of Tory MPs.
She will become Britain’s shortest-serving PM when she steps down next week, breaking the record of George Canning, who died in office after just 119 days. During her brief resignation speech, the outgoing PM said: “I came to office at a time of great economic and international instability.
"“Families and businesses were worried about how to pay their bills. Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine threatens the security of our whole continent and our country has been held back for too long by low economic growth.
"I was elected by the Conservative Party with a mandate to change this. I recognise though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party. I therefore spoke to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
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