MPs have started declaring their support for Sunak, Johnson and MordauntAfter spending Liz Truss’s premiership keeping an extremely low profile, Rishi Sunak is firmly back on the scene this morning, with several MPs declaring their support in a coordinated social media push last night.
Sunak’s deepest appeal to MPs is his promise of absolution: if you think the voters’ distaste for Boris Johnson is only outdone by their disgust at everything that has happened since, Sunak allows you to rewind the clock, but not too far.
Among the MPs who voiced their support for Sunak on Twitter were Simon Hart, Helen Whately, Huw Merriman and Nick Gibb.
Hart said that this was “no time for experiments; no time for frivolity…this means choosing someone serious, tested, competent and kind.”
After the last few weeks the very least we can do for the country is get the right Prime Minister this time. No time for experiments; no time for frivolity; no time to line up a job offer. This means choosing someone serious, tested, competent & kind.
For me that’s Rishi Sunak.
— Simon Hart (@Simonhartmp) October 20, 2022 While Sunak beats the other plausible candidates, apart from Johnson, in recent membership polls, it is easy to see the former PM’s hardcore in the rank and file coalescing around Penny Mordaunt instead. So Sunak would certainly rather have the race sewn up early. But given the deep divides in the party over economic policy, as well as whether he should be held personally responsible for Johnson’s demise, any impression of unity is likely to be only a superficial effect.
Former culture secretary and current member for Mid Bedfordshire Nadine Dorries was among those who voiced support for Boris Johnson on Thursday, both on television and on Twitter, where she said, “One person was elected by the British public with a manifesto and a mandate until January 25”:
One person was elected by the British public with a manifesto and a mandate until January ‘25.
If Liz Truss is no longer PM there can be no coronation of previously failed candidates.
MPs must demand return of @BorisJohnson – if not it has to be leadership election or a GE.
— Nadine Dorries (@NadineDorries) October 20, 2022 Member for West Cornwall Derek Thomas tweeted in support of Mordaunt, who he said had been his first choice when he supported Truss:
Although she wasn’t my first choice, I supported Liz Truss because I believed she would deliver the growth this country needs.
She herself accepted in her resignation speech that she will not be able to do so.
My first choice for Prime Minister is again Penny Mordaunt.#PMforPM
— Derek Thomas MP (@DerekThomasUK) October 20, 2022 Key events
The chair of the powerful 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, has confirmed there will be a hustings for MPs before they begin voting in the Tory leadership contest on Monday.
Why Privileges Committee investigation into Boris Johnson still mattersWhile Boris Johnson is reportedly jetting back from his Caribbean holiday, it’s worth remembering that the former prime minister is still under investigation by a Commons committee after being accused of misleading MPs about parties held in Downing Street during lockdown.
Johnson told MPs in December 2021 that “all guidance was followed completely in No 10”, six months before Scotland Yard issued more than 100 fines, including to the then prime minister personally, for law-breaking Covid parties.
If he is found to have been in contempt of Parliament, Johnson could face suspension from the House of Commons or even lose his seat.
The Ministerial Code, the rule book for government ministers, says:
Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation.
The veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said yesterday:
We need to remember that Mr Johnson is still under investigation by the privileges committee for potentially misleading the House. Until that investigation is complete and he is found guilty or cleared, there should be no possibility of him returning to government.
The veteran Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope says he’s “really excited” about the prospect of Boris Johnson “riding to the rescue of the country”.
Speaking on Sky News, he described the former PM as “the great hope” for the nation and party. He said:
I think that the news that Boris Johnson might be riding to the rescue of the country and the Conservative party is really a great tonic. I’m really excited about that prospect because I didn’t want him to be deposed in the first place. I said we’d rue the day that he was deposed. Sadly, I’ve been proved right on that.
He called for any new leader, if it’s not Johnson, to hold a general election. He said:
I think there should be a general election because we need whoever becomes the leader – if it’s not Boris Johnson – we need to have the proper mandate. And the only way to get a proper mandate is to go to the people. I’m not pessimistic about the outcome of a general election.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen says he thinks Boris Johnson will get 100 backers, Michael Savage from the Observer writes.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen says he’s run his own numbers and thinks Boris Johnson will get 100 backers – but urges colleagues not to do it.
“He will be emboldened,” he says. “There would be no limits” on what he would do.
— Michael Savage (@michaelsavage) October 21, 2022 A Johnson supporter has told Cat Neilan from Tortoise that they have the 100 to nominate.
🚨 Boris backer says: “We have the 100 to nominate.”
However just over 50 declared so far, acc to @GuidoFawkes
— Cat Neilan (@CatNeilan) October 21, 2022 The SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said there will be a “wave of revulsion” across Scotland if Boris Johnson becomes prime minister again.
He reiterated his party’s calls for an early general election, describing the Tories as “out of touch” and “out of time”.
Blackford told BBC Radio Scotland:
As we are discussing this this morning there’s real concern that the Tories might want to foist Boris Johnson back onto us again – I think there will be a wave of revulsion throughout Scotland.
He added:
You really have to think that the Conservatives have learned nothing as to what we’ve gone through and the reason why Boris Johnson had to be swept from office.
We can’t continue to see Parliament as a personal plaything of those on the Tory right that want to enact the policies that they’ve been doing.
Speaking on Sky News, he said Liz Truss’s premiership was “one big financial experiment” that went “horribly wrong”. He said:
I’m relieved that she’s gone, it’s been a challenging few weeks. It’s been one big financial experiment, and it’s one that’s gone horribly wrong.
Liz Truss had known “since the mini-budget there was no way back” and felt “relieved” as she resigned yesterday, according to a source.
The Times reports Truss had wanted to sack the chief whip, Wendy Morton, after being told repeatedly that she was not up to the job but was unable to do so. The paper quotes a friend to the PM as saying:
She was not in a good place. She just couldn’t see a way through. She’s known since the mini-budget there was no way back.
During their meeting in Downing Street yesterday, Sir Graham Brady told her he had received “too many letters” for her to stay in office, and that she could not carry on, one Tory grandee said.
Shortly after 1pm, Truss gathered her closest aides and told them of her decision before she announced it to the public. While some in the room were crying, Truss was said to be stoical. One ally said:
She’s relieved if anything. She won’t stand down as an MP but she needs a holiday.
The business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg has tweeted that he is backing Boris Johnson for leader.
The Guardian’s Peter Walker writes that Tory MPs face a choice of re-electing Boris Johnson and losing a couple of dozens of seats to the Lib Dems.
Among the many calculations Conservative MPs would need to make if they decided to re-elect Boris Johnson is the fact that you would have to write off perhaps a couple of dozens seats to the Lib Dems in the Blue Wall (and beyond). It’s not small numbers.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 21, 2022 Leaflet printers in Blue Wall seats are already cancelling all staff holidays, I’m told. The local postal delivery workers are on exercise regimes.
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) October 21, 2022
Jamie Grierson
The prospect of Boris Johnson returning to Downing Street is dominating debate at the start of the second Conservative party leadership contest of the year amid fevered speculation the former premier is plotting a comeback.
Boris Johnson resigning as prime minister last month. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/APJust six weeks after he left No 10, forced out by his own MPs after a slew of scandals, supporters are calling on him to return from holiday in the Dominican Republic and run again for a second shot at leading the country.
Various outlets are keeping tallies of Johnson’s backers, with those including “unnamed” supporters suggesting he has as many as 50, with others putting the number closer to 38.
Read the full story:
A Conservative MP and member of the powerful 1922 Committee, Karl McCartney, said he is “quite confident” Boris Johnson can win if he stands.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said Johnson as PM dealt with a range of difficult issues in a “credible” way and “made the right call on a number of things” from the Ukraine war to the pandemic.
He accused Labour and sections of the media of carrying out a “credible hatchet job” on Johnson which ultimately led to his resignation, rather than being a reflection of discontent among his own MPs and the party.
Suella Braverman will be “making a statement in due course”, Sky News is reporting.
The former home secretary did not confirm or deny if she will be making a run.
The Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has joined calls for Liz Truss to decline the allowance of up to £115,000 a year she will be entitled to as a former prime minister.
He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:
She should turn it down. I think that’s the right thing to do. She’s done 44 days in office, she’s not really entitled to it, she should turn it down and not take it.
He said a Labour government would not “want to cut public spending” but would make “prudent” choices on the economy. He said:
A month ago we weren’t even having a discussion about spending cuts … We’re discussing that question because this government crashed the economy with their kamikaze mini-budget.
But the contrast really is this – carry on with this utter chaos or have stability under a Labour government and I think that’s a choice that ought to be put to the British public, because they’ve been damaged by this – we’ve got this ridiculous situation now of yet another prime minister coming to try their hand.
Asked how he would fund public spending, he said:
If you take the energy price freeze, we all agree those prices have got to be frozen over the winter. What we’ve said is those oil and gas companies that have been making excess profits – profits they didn’t expect to make – should pay their fair way.
Penny Mordaunt ‘taking soundings from colleagues’An ally of Penny Mordaunt said she is not currently working on a leadership bid but is “taking soundings” from colleagues.
A source told the PA news agency:
It’s a testament to Penny’s campaign over the summer how many colleagues have already come out asking her to stand.
At the moment there isn’t a campaign but Penny has always been the candidate that can unite the party, deliver and beat Labour.
At the moment she’s been taking soundings from her colleagues and has been busy speaking to as many as she can.