Boris Johnson 'lurking in shadows' as Tories fear another leadership contest in 18 months
The elimination of James Cleverly from the Conservative leadership contest has left MPs worried that the Tory party has not learned from its mistakes.
As Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick prepare to go head-to-head for the Tory leadership, the imposing figure of Boris Johnson lurks around every corner.
The former PM is a busy man, conducting a wide-ranging book tour that sees him atop the news agenda in the week that the Conservative party narrows down its leadership candidates to be presented to the members.
Johnson’s release of his memoirs today places the “serial election winner” at the forefront of some members' consciousness.
Neither of the two remaining candidates was the bookies favourite just 48 hours ago and James Cleverly’s shock elimination has left many in the party in a state of shock and anxiety.
One MP told The Times: "The party's f***ed. The public will look at us at the next election and think 'these people haven't learned a thing'. But we'll probably be doing this again in 18 months anyway."
The former Home Secretary was eliminated earlier this week from the contest, after leading the previous day's vote. He had been widely predicted to sweep up the majority of eliminated Tom Tugendhat’s centrist votes.
However, Cleverly lost the latest round, paving the way for a membership vote between two of the candidates considered to be the most right-wing among those who took part in the leadership race.
Some have speculated that confidence in the Cleverly camp saw many of his voters vote for the perceived weakest candidate, in the hope of bolstering his chances of success.
Tom Skinner, an adviser to Mr Cleverly's campaign, told LBC: "To be honest it’s an almighty cock-up. Everyone’s shocked."
He added: "One of the problems with politics is that everyone in politics thinks they are very clever. They all think they are cleverer than everybody else.
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"Too many people went in there trying to vote for the person who they thought would knock out the person they didn’t like.
"There were so many MPs who were ‘anyone but Rob and anyone but Kemi’… what it’s meant is that en masse… sadly from my point of view it’s done for James."
Former Prime Minister Johnson has noticeably avoided ruling out a political comeback throughout the promotion of his book.
Tory veteran ex-MP Paul Goodman referred to Johnson as a “lurking figure in the shadows”, according to the Daily Mail.
Memorably, in his resignation speech, Johnson hinted at a return to politics as he said “like Cincinnatus I am returning to my plough.”
Johnson, who is well read in classics and the Roman Empire, will have known full well that Cincinnatus returned to Rome when called upon to be appointed temporary dictator.
Historian Mary Beard remarked at the time that Cincinnatus cause was against the common people, known as plebs, rather than the political establishment.
Despite being a controversial figure, Johnson remains popular amongst many Conservatives and potentially amongst Reform voters, having won a 2019 landslide on the premises of “getting Brexit done”.
A recent poll conducted by YouGov shows Johnson in second place in a list of the most popular political figures. Keir Starmer came fifteenth, Kemi Badenoch 30th and Robert Jenrick in 102nd.
