It has been nothing short of a hurricane week in Westminster. Liz Truss, who was elected by Conservative Party members to the leadership only 45 short days ago, stepped down following a flurry of criticism of her handling of the economy, and Britain is once again on the hunt for a new prime minister.
For some, the answer to the leadership question lies not in the handful of new punters expected to put themselves forward - but in the past. As speculation grows over who will take over the top job, the name Boris Johnson has been on more than a few people's lips.
But just how likely is it that Boris Johnson will make a return? One pollster is warning people not to believe the hype, saying Johnsin isn't actually as popular as he may seem.
Taking to Twitter to share his data, Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester, Rob Ford, aimed to show that 'he wasn't popular then [2019], and he *certainly* isn't now'.
"Boris Johnson was *not* popular in 2019," Ford tweeted. "He was less popular at every point of the campaign than Theresa May was in the 2017 campaign (see graph). He had the good fortune to run with two strong fair winds - a toxic opponent (Corbyn) and a winning issue (Brexit). Both gone now."
Ford continued to highlight how Johnson was 'not popular at all' for most of his time at the top, with a net rating of -46 with MORI at his lowest - 'the 6th worst ever & only 5 points better than Truss's worst rating'. He also reminded readers that this period only ended three months ago.
"Boris backers imagine that Johnson can turn this around. But you can't unburn toast," he wrote, continuing to spell out Johnson's final ratings with YouGov.
Ford then tweeted a word cloud of descriptions of Boris Johnson from April 2022, prominently featuring words such as 'liar', 'untrustworthy', 'buffoon', and 'incompetent'. He reminded readers that this polling was done just six months ago.
"People imagining these impressions have somehow disappeared or been reversed are deluding themselves," he wrote.
The politics professor then turns to analysing Johnson's performance in actual elections: "There were 5 contested by-elex after "partygate" scandals. Averaging Con fall across all 5 was -17.3 per cent," he tweeted. "Average Con fall across 3 Con-Lab or Lab-Con contests was -11.2.
"The 2022 local elections saw a massive swing against Cons towards whoever was best placed to unset them locally. Cons collapsed in London and they collapsed in their Southern heartlands."
Ford says the evidence that Johnson can provide the 'unity and good governance his party and country crave' is 'not encouraging either'.
"The Johnson government was characterised from start to finish by chaos, scandal, self-inflicted blunders, and screeching U-turns repeatedly humiliating ministers who defended unpopular lines only to see them abandoned hours later. Again, this all happened only a few months ago," he tweeted.
"As for scandals, where to start? Partygate, Pincher, Paterson, Barnard Castle, Lebedev and much, much more. He is still under investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee, who could yet recommend suspending him from the house *next month*.
"Johnson supporters may have forgotten all this, but voters and more critical MPs have not. Much of it happened this year, after all. We are already seeing MPs pledge to resign the whip and/or trigger by-elex rather than serve under a Johnson Lazarus administration
"So the idea of Bring Back Boris has only a few small flaws: He isn't popular. He never was. He can't govern. He can't unify. Scandal & chaos follows him wherever he goes. And enough Con MPs know all of this to leave him unable to govern from day 1," Ford concluded. He also said current polling shows Boris would likely lose to either of his potential rivals next week.
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