The outgoing prime minister may attempt a return to office in the event the incoming Conservative prime minister fails, his allies have been reported as saying.
According to reports in The Times, Boris Johnson is more likely to become a backbench Tory MP until at least the next election rather than to stand down as an MP. One observer close to the Prime Minister claimed that a government led by Rishi Sunak, the candidate most favoured to become Mr Johnson's successor, could divide the party even further and lead to a speedy collapse as right wingers in the party launched a new revolt over the issue of Brexit. On top of a recession it could end a Sunak premiership.
One ally told the Times: “He’s not gone for the long term. A third of the parliamentary party is loyal to him and he’s not standing down as an MP. He could have significant influence from the outside – and then who knows what will happen?”
Fulfilling Mr Johnson's wish and comparing him to Sir Winston Churchill, a close political friend of the Prime Minister said: “The party will be begging Boris to come back. There will be buyer’s remorse.” Churchill returned to office in 1951 after being ousted in 1945.
On Monday, the Prime Minister refused to back any of his potential successors, adding that his support could be damaging. He also rebuffed any suggestions that he felt “betrayed” by his MPs and announced that he would continue in office as caretaker prime minister. “I don’t want to say any more about all that,” he told the Times. “The constitutional function of the prime minister in this situation is to continue to discharge the mandate. And that’s what I’m doing.”
He repeated the achievements of his time in office, referencing the “great, great agenda” his replacement would take on. “I know that whatever happens and whoever takes over, there is a great, great agenda to be continued and that we put in some pretty fantastic investments, not just in science but in infrastructure, skills and technology, that I think are going to enable us Conservatives, I should say, to keep on with our programme of levelling up and delivering for all the people in this country.”
It was also reported that domestically, there may have been a sense of relief that the current occupants of No 10 (or rather No 11) would soon be moving out, amid claims that the Prime Minister’s wife felt living in Downing Street was like a prison. Carrie Johnson reportedly said she felt trapped inside No 10 and found it like living in a pressure cooker.
An insider is said to have told the Telegraph: “Downing Street is like a prison. It’s nice enough in the flat, but it doesn’t have its own outside space that is genuinely yours. The garden is shared with the staff and you can’t move outside the gates without people following you or taking pictures. That is a nightmare.”
