Emerging details reaching Taarifa Political desk indicate that the recently ejected UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is reportedly plotting an astonishing political comeback.
According to insider sources in the Conservative party, Boris on Thursday night privately urged Conservative MPs – including his rival and odds-on favourite Rishi Sunak – to back him in the race to become prime minister following Liz Truss’s humiliating resignation just 44 days into the job.
Just weeks after himself being forced out – and telling the House of Commons: ‘Hasta la vista, baby!’ – Mr Johnson is shoring up alliances by insisting he is the only candidate who can win an election against Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer.
However, political pundits argue he will need the backing of at least 100 MPs if he wants to become only the third prime minister in history to return for a second stint after leaving office, following in the footsteps of his hero Winston Churchill – and Labour’s Harold Wilson.
While he already has the backing of 50, compared to Mr Sunak’s 39, the prospect of a Boris comeback has forced other Tory MPs to threaten to quit and trigger by-elections, with one branding him ‘ego-on-sticks’ and another telling him to ‘go back to the beach.’
In a bid to heal divisions, he is reportedly pressing Mr Sunak to reach out and ‘get back together’.
The remarkable olive branch follows months of feuding after the former chancellor was accused of ‘knifing Boris in the back’ when he dramatically left his cabinet position, sparking a wave of resignations that ultimately toppled Mr Johnson’s premiership.
