BORIS Johnson reportedly wishes he could "wipe away" his resignation as Prime Minister as a campaign to keep him in office builds steam, a loyalist peer has said.
Former Tory party treasurer Lord Cruddas of Shoreditch, also founder of Vote Leave and a billionaire, told The Telegraph that Johnson doesn't want to stand down as PM.
The "caretaker" Prime Minister also allegedly informed Cruddas at Chequers over lunch on Friday last week that he “wants to fight the next general election as leader of the Conservative Party."
It comes as the two candidates vying to replace Johnson as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, are set to go head to head in a BBC debate on Monday night.
Johnson and Cruddas reportedly discussed the peer's “bring back Boris” campaign calling for the outgoing PM to be added to the ballot paper of the leadership contest.
Cruddas said Johnson had told him he was “rooting for your campaign to succeed” with more than 10,000 party members in just seven days showing their support for the idea.
However, with around 160,000 Tory party members, this equates to only 6.25% of the viable electorate for the contest.
He said Johnson told him he was “enjoying following” the peer’s petition, adding: “There was no ambiguity in Boris’s views.
“He definitely does not want to resign.
“He wants to carry on and he believes that, with the membership behind him, he can.”
It remains to be seen whether Johnson’s comments are raised as an issue during the Sunak and Truss debate.
Conservative members have been signing the petition calling for a confirmatory vote on the MP’s decision to oust Johnson at a rate of nearly 2000 per day since it was launched.
Speaking to The National, Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay said: "The sooner Boris Johnson is gone from Downing Street the better.
"His premiership has drifted from one disaster to another and is culminating with the worst cost of living crisis in decades. His desire to cling onto power, even in the face of abject failure, is entirely in character.
"The only sad thing about Mr Johnson’s tenure coming to an end is that he will be succeeded by another cruel and incompetent Tory.
"Whoever comes out on top in this leadership circus, it’s clear that only with independence can Scotland be assured that never again will we be landed with a Tory government that we didn’t vote for.”
As well as debating on the BBC, Sunak and Truss are also set to debate on TalkTV on Tuesday evening before the former will be interviewed by Andrew Neil on Friday.
An SNP spokesperson told The National:“In less than three years Boris Johnson emphatically proved to be what all his critics said he was – entirely unsuitable for the job of Prime Minister.
“He is an incompetent serial liar and law breaker who lurched from crisis to crisis while his Government sank deeper and deeper into a swamp of sleaze and corruption.
“And his flagship Brexit obsession has been an economic disaster which has deepened the cost of living crisis his party created under his tenure.
“With his innate sense of self-importance and entitlement it is no surprise he doesn’t recognise his multiple failings and believes he should carry on in No10. But 10,000 Conservative supporters signing a petition to keep him in office is terrifying.
“These are the people Britain is relying on to pick his replacement from two contenders who, as long-serving Cabinet Ministers, enabled Johnson to wreak havoc in the first place and have played full parts in the Tory lurch to the right.
“Britain really is in trouble with whoever comes next – Truss, Sunak, or unbelievably the return of Boris Johnson.
“Scotland’s only hope is to escape Westminster control as a wealthier, happier and fairer independent nation.”
A Number 10 spokeswoman said: "The Prime Minister has resigned as party leader and set out his intention to stand down as PM when the new leader is in place.
