He couldn’t, could, he? He might. Boris Johnson, who political anoraks will recall was prime minister until last month, is said to be considering a return to the top job. The Times’s Steven Swinford is reporting that Johnson believes it to be in the “national interest”.
The things is, if Conservative Party members get to have the final say, as is now expected, Johnson would need only to finish in the top two amongst MPs in order to reach that membership stage, at which point he would be a shoo-in. To be blunt, this could happen a week tomorrow.
You can find all the runners and riders here, each of which I’m sure will command the support of up to a third of Conservative MPs before finding out for themselves that the parliamentary party is essentially unmanageable.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has demanded a general election, which is what leaders of the opposition are required to do even when they’re not 30 points ahead in the polls. He won’t get one, but it’s nice everyone knows their role in this now monthly political jamboree.
Meanwhile, well-earned troll of the day goes to French president Emmanuel Macron, who said he hopes the UK will “find stability again and moves on, as soon as possible.”
I hate to be a Treasury bore by bringing it back to bean counting, but this was already shaping up to be a rather busy few days. The medium-term fiscal plan is still set for October 31. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who has ruled himself out of the running, has massive decisions to make on tax and spend. Secretaries of state have been asked to find savings. Will any of these people be in the job by then?
I suppose it’s not as if the cabinet has cultivated an image of stability up to this point. Indeed as of four o’clock, foreign secretary James Cleverly is the only holder of one of the four great offices of state not to have either resigned or been sacked in the last week.
Here’s the thing. The Brexit wars, with its humble addresses and temporary Lord Protector Oliver Letwin, at least had a meaningful basis for the chaos. Parliament was at loggerheads with the public (and itself) over how, or even whether, to carry out the result of the referendum. Today’s mayhem is predicated on the fact that the governing party has descended into factionalism and appears unable to fulfil its duties.
Perhaps a new (or returning) prime minister will be able to make it work. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. But it beats blind optimism.
Elsewhere in the paper, American citizen Anne Sacoolas has admitted killing teenager Harry Dunn in a fatal road crash outside a US military base in Northamptonshire, ending a three-year campaign to bring her to justice.
In the comment pages, Andy Burnham has an idea to fund the tough winter to come: a big one-off wealth tax. While Séamas O’Reilly has a witty take on Suella Braverman, tofu and the hierarchy of woke delicacies.
And finally, after all that, if you can fall asleep while all around you is chaos... you’re doing better than most. Susie Lau on the art of napping.
