Tory MPs tell Boris Johnson: We don't want you back
Conservative MPs have said they do not want Boris Johnson to return as Tory leader.
Senior figures said there was no 'appetite' among the party's 121 MPs for the former prime minister to make a comeback, adding that he was unpopular with floating voters and the political landscape had changed.
Some are said to have threatened to quit the party if Mr Johnson were to be readmitted. It comes amid rumours that he could be considering a Donald Trump-style return to frontline politics.
The Conservatives are floundering in the polls under Kemi Badenoch. Earlier this month, YouGov put them in fourth place behind Reform UK, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Backers of Mr Johnson said he was a proven election-winner and could see off the threat of Reform because of his cross-party appeal, but current Tory MPs have said he should not return.
One said: 'I don't think there's a lot of enthusiasm amongst this parliamentary party, particularly amongst the new MPs who obviously never served with him.'
They added that there would always be an 'affection' for Mr Johnson among Tories because of his huge electoral success in 2019, but said: 'I don't think there is an appetite for him to come back, given that he is actually very unpopular with floating voters.'
A shadow Cabinet minister said that they could not think 'of a single one' of their colleagues who thought Mr Johnson returning to the Conservative Party fold would be a good thing.
Iain Martin, a political columnist, told the Not Another One podcast last week that two Conservatives MPs had made it known they would 'not stick around' if Mr Johnson became party leader again.
Mrs Badenoch refused to be drawn on whether the former PM should return to politics, telling GB News on Sunday: 'I love Boris. He sends me lots of messages, gives me lots of advice, like Iain Duncan Smith, like David Cameron.
'I have great people who have been in this situation before, who dealt with difficult times. So it's up to him what he wants to do.'
Allies of Mr Johnson outside Parliament, however, sought to encourage his return. One said he should be put back onto the Tory candidate list and put forward for a by-election to show he was still an 'election winner'.
Another said that if the former prime minister were to fight a by-election and beat Reform, it would show he was the leadership candidate to see off the threat from Nigel Farage's party.
But another Johnson ally said that although there was a 'Boris-shaped hole' in British politics, the idea that Tory MPs would trust him enough to have him back in the party 'is just too far-fetched'.
Mr Johnson was forced to resign as prime minister in 2022 after scores of his MPs withdrew their support after a series of scandals.
Revelations of lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street on his watch, and the handling of allegations of misconduct by Chris Pincher, the party deputy chief whip, contributed to Mr Johnson's downfall.
But a survey conducted by Ipsos last week found that the net favourability of Mr Johnson outstripped that of Mrs Badenoch at 26 per cent to 17 per cent.
He also proved more popular than Robert Jenrick, who ran against Mrs Badenoch for the Tory leadership, at 16 per cent. He was beaten only by Mr Farage, with a favourability rating of 31 per cent, in the poll.
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