The Conservatives will turn to Boris Johnson in an attempt to boost their faltering election campaign, according to reports.
Tens of thousands of letters signed by the former prime minister are expected to be delivered later this week in the closest campaign engagement yet by Johnson, whose involvement so far has been limited to endorsing individual Tory MPs.
Voters who backed the Conservatives in the 2019 general election but who are now tempted to switch to Nigel Farage’s resurgent Reform UK are among those who are to be targeted in the direct mail push, the Telegraph reported.
Johnson has been recording personal endorsements in the form of video messages that have been shared on social media by Conservative candidates, including some of those who were supporters when he faced a leadership heave.
The former prime minister said in one of them that he was “passionate” about the re-election of Simon Clarke, who tried to spark a rebellion against Sunak earlier this year.
Alice Hopkin, a former special adviser to the home secretary, James Cleverly, shared one of the latest video endorsements from Johnson on Monday night when she said voters “must decide if they want a Labour super majority or be represented by true Conservative MPs”.
However, when confronted with reports of the Johnson-signed letters, the farming minister, Mark Spencer, said that it was Sunak, not Johnson, who was moving the Conservative party forward, saying: “The future is now Rishi Sunak.”
Asked by Sky News if the former leader was the Conservatives’ “antidote” to Farage in the general election, he said: “Boris was a fantastic prime minister, certainly in delivering what he did for the Covid vaccine, in making sure that he put us front and centre in the fight for Ukraine. They were huge achievements of the Johnson campaign.
“Boris is no longer a member of parliament. He has stepped back from politics and I think now we have got a prime minister in Rishi Sunak who has steadied the ship, who is moving us forward.”
Relations between Johnson and Sunak have been strained since the latter resigned in July 2022, throwing Johnson’s administration into turmoil and creating a rift within the party that has never quite healed.
Nadine Dorries, a Johnson ally, launched a blistering attack on Sunak when she resigned as a minister last year, telling the prime minister: “History will not judge you kindly.”
