Get prepared for backbench Boris.
After greater than three years as prime minister, Mr Johnson heads for the backbenches, the place he’s anticipated to be defiant, fire up hassle and plot a Trump-style comeback.
He claims he will likely be loyal to his successor – and but he is refusing to rule out a return.
“Mission largely accomplished – for now!” he declared at his ultimate Prime Minister’s Questions in July.
Top Tories, shut allies and even an ex-girlfriend are all agreed that his resentment in direction of his assassins – as he sees them – means he’ll bide his time till he is able to strike again.
Politics Hub: Boris Johnson ‘could also be tempted’ to run once more
And as he heads for the backbenches, the previous prime minister is strolling into an almighty row already, because the previous wounds that led to his downfall are reopened.
The inquiry by the Privileges Committee into claims he lied to MPs over partygate and about groping allegations towards former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher might result in him being suspended and even being kicked out of the Commons.
A authorized opinion by high QC Lord Pannick that the inquiry is “fundamentally flawed” – commissioned by Boris Johnson’s authorities – has prompted calls for from his allies, who’ve condemned the probe as a “witch-hunt” and a “kangaroo court”, for the inquiry to be scrapped.
Liz Truss signalled in the course of the Tory management marketing campaign that she would vote to name it off, a transfer that might engulf her in a harmful cover-up and cronyism row. But there will likely be a livid battle over the inquiry as MPs return to Westminster after the summer season recess.
On the backbenches, Mr Johnson will little question search to defend his legacy and is tipped to talk out on causes he cares about, resembling internet zero, levelling up and Ukraine, the place there are 4 streets – and a cake – named after him.
He’s additionally becoming a member of on the backbenches one other former Tory prime minister, Theresa May, whose demise he plotted along with his Brexiteer allies after he resigned as international secretary in 2018.
Who will Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle name first in debates and ministerial statements? Parliament’s rulebook Erskine May (no relation!) presents no steering.
Mrs May, first elected in 1997, has been an MP longer, although Sir Lindsay may use his discretion to name Mr Johnson first on some points, like Ukraine, for instance.
Johnson has type for inflicting hassle on the backbenches
It is uncommon however certainly not unprecedented for there to be two former prime ministers on the inexperienced benches behind the present incumbent of 10 Downing Street. And the precedent of backbench back-seat drivers does not bode effectively.
While Harold Wilson and James Callaghan each sat on the Labour backbenches from 1979 till 1983, Sir Edward Heath’s portly body stuffed the nook seat under the gangway, simply ft from the prime minister and the despatch field, for 27 years from his February 1974 normal election defeat till he left parliament in 2001.
He was joined on the backbenches between 1990 and 1992 by his sworn enemy Margaret Thatcher after she was ousted in a Cabinet coup, and by John Major after his defeat in Labour’s 1997 landslide.
Sir Edward’s bitter backbench vigil and 25-year feud with Mrs Thatcher earned him the nickname “the incredible sulk”. And Mrs Thatcher clashed with Mr Major over his dealing with of the economic system simply weeks after he succeeded her in 1990.
Boris Johnson, in fact, has type for inflicting hassle from the Tory backbenches. Within days of resigning as international secretary over Brexit in July 2018 he exploded again into the political fray with a blistering broadside as Mrs May struggled to include open warfare within the Conservative Party.
He complained {that a} “fog of self-doubt” had descended on the federal government and accused the PM of deceptive voters and placing the UK “in limbo”. And making a transparent pitch for her job, he added: “It’s not too late to save Brexit.”
PM has persistently refused to rule out a comeback
A number of weeks later, on the 2018 Tory convention in Birmingham, he once more launched an explosive assault on Mrs May’s Chequers plan for Brexit. “Chuck Chequers!” he bellowed to 1,500 adoring activists at a fringe assembly.
This time it is completely different, nevertheless, he claims. “My intention and what I certainly will do is give my full and unqualified support to whoever takes over from me,” he mentioned throughout his farewell tour final week.
And on this weekend’s Sunday Express, he wrote: “This is the moment for every Conservative to come together and back (the) new leader wholeheartedly.”
And but Mr Johnson has persistently refused to rule out a comeback, little question flattered by a Sky News-YouGov Tory management ballot which recommended practically half of Conservative Party members need him again.
When requested “What if Boris Johnson was actually on the ballot paper?” he received by a landslide. Some 46% mentioned they might vote for him – virtually double the 24% for Liz Truss and 23% for Rishi Sunak.
Talk of ‘seven-figure sum’ for Johnson’s memoirs
There was additionally a “Bring Back Boris” petition, organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas, demanding a rule change so the outgoing PM might be a part of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak on the management poll paper.
Former Tory cupboard minister Rory Stewart has in contrast Mr Johnson to former Pakistan PM Imran Khan, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and his soulmate Donald Trump in hoping for a return.
The Sunday Times quoted a senior authorities official claiming: “Boris is now getting two lots of advice. Some people are telling him to go away and have a nice life and make lots of money. Others are fuelling the stab-in-the-back theory and are suggesting to him that he could come back.”
And what about cash? It has been claimed that Mr Johnson hopes to make as a lot as £10m in his first yr out of Downing Street.
Tory ally Lord Marland claims Mr Johnson’s precedence is “putting hay in the loft” to repay his money owed. He will have the ability to declare as much as £115,000 of taxpayers’ money a yr in direction of “public duties”.
There is already discuss of a deal value a “seven-figure sum” for his memoirs, in extra of the £800,000 for David Cameron’s, in addition to ending a guide on Shakespeare.
Then there’s newspaper columns – he did, in any case, name The Daily Telegraph his “real boss”, in accordance with Dominic Cummings – and signing up with a audio system’ bureau for £250,000 a speech.
Of course, he’d need to declare his earnings if he stays an MP, though he has fallen foul of the principles of the Register of Members’ Interests earlier than and clashed with parliament’s requirements commissioner and the Electoral Commission over late declarations, a vacation in Mustique and “wallpaper-gate”.
‘I might by no means write him off’
He might want to stay within the Commons, although, if he does plan a political comeback. If he survives the Privileges Committee inquiry or it is thrown out in a Commons vote, on the subsequent election he’ll defend a majority in Uxbridge and South Ruislip of seven,210, not probably the most impregnable given the Tories’ falling assist within the polls.
A clue to Mr Johnson’s intentions – whether or not he’ll certainly be loyal to his successor or trigger hassle – will likely be whether or not he plans to attend the Tory convention subsequent month.
As he demonstrated along with his 2018 onslaught on Theresa May, he enjoys a standing with celebration activists of someplace between a god and a rock star. His reception from these adoring activists would overshadow and humiliate his successor.
In a farewell interview with the Daily Express, Mr Johnson mentioned it was “TBC” whether or not he would attend the Conservative convention this yr. So he isn’t ruling that out, both.
Quizzed about his previous boss’s intentions on Sophy Ridge on Sunday on Sky News, Mr Johnson’s veteran ally Lord Lister predicted: “I’d never say on anything with Boris Johnson. Anything is possible in the future.”
And repeating a well-known Boris Johnson quote from 2013 on his management ambitions, he added: “If the ball comes loose in the scrum, then anything could happen. I would never write him off.”
‘Hasta La Vista, Baby’
The final phrase on backbench Boris’s intentions for the longer term goes to his former girlfriend Petronella Wyatt, who had a four-year affair with him after they labored at The Spectator journal, which he edited.
“Knowing Boris as I do, there is no doubt he is planning a political comeback,” she tweeted final week. “If he wasn’t, he would disassociate himself from the members’ petition asking for a vote on his resignation.
“He has not as soon as denied rumours that he intends to return.”
At his final PMQs, as well as saying his mission was “largely completed – for now”, Mr Johnson repeated Arnold Schwarzenegger famous catchphrase “Hasta La Vista, Baby”, which roughly translated means: “See you later.”
He also offered this advice to his successor: “Always bear in mind to test the rear-view mirror.”
Sound recommendation as the previous PM turns into backbench Boris.
Source: information.sky.com”