A political slugfest appears to be in store for the Conservative Party, with reports emerging that Boris Johnson has rejected calls from his globalist peers to back down from the race to become Britain’s next Prime Minister.
Eleventh-hour attempts to get Boris Johnson to back down from seeking reelection to the position of Conservative (Tory) Party leader and, by extension, Prime Minister appear to have failed, with a battle for the position now looking likely to take place between the ex-premier and his World Economic Forum-affiliated former Chancellor, Rishi Sunak.
While Johnson appears to be by far the favourite of the party’s grassroots members, many MPs with its parliamentary elite are not keen on him returning, instead seemingly being in favour of an even more globalist-leaning alternative.
According to The Times, however, it looks like party bigwigs may not get their wish, with insiders saying that Boris Johnson is phoning up his fellow MPs in an attempt to get their support for his leadership bid.
Calling senior supporters at 8 a.m. this morning, Johnson is said to have claimed that he is the only Conservative Party leadership candidate with the “democratic mandate” to lead the country, given he was at the helm in 2019 when they won their biggest parliamentary majority since the 1980s.
For Conservative Members of Parliament, Sunday will likely consist of them being harangued by prospective leadership candidates begging for their vote, with an increased threshold of 100 endorsements from MPs needed for leadership hopefuls to even appear on next week’s ballot paper.
In this regard, Boris Johnson may still have issues, with only around 70 MPs having pledged their support to him seeking reelection as of the time of publication — compared to well over 120 in the Sunak camp.
Johnson campaign insiders have claimed that the former PM has the 100 endorsements needed to run, however.
The tasks of gaining more support will likely be made easier for the ex-premier by recent polling, which indicates that not only is BoJo the favourite candidate in the party amongst Tory members, but he is also in the best position to take on Labour.
According to research published by The Mail, while all other candidates for the British premiership would lose an election to Labour by over 100 seats, Boris Johnson would lose by only 26 — a margin much easier to make up between now and the next time Britons go to the polls.
That is not to say that Johnson will easily return to Number 10, with Tory bigwigs within Westminster appearing to be largely hostile to a return by the so-called “Big Dog“.
One of the major reasons for this appears to be policy, with even Johnson’s pro-green agenda and pro-censorship stances not being seen as globalist enough for many within the parliamentary party, who are seemingly keener to see the likes of China-backed Rishi Sunak in the position rather than someone who supports a marginally nationalist-leaning platform.
Then there is the issue that Johnson is still under investigation over alleged COVID lockdown rulebreaking by a parliamentary committee — led by a former acting leader of the Labour Party — the results of which could see any “Boris 2.0” return immediately challenged.
“It is amazing that some Tory MPs want Boris back, saying they think he can win them the next election,” one party insider reportedly told broadcaster ITV regarding the investigation, which is examining the extent to which Johnson broke his own draconian lockdown rules.
“If the [inquiry] is as damning for him as it sounds, he is possibly gone by Christmas,” the insider went on to claim.
Meanwhile, there may still be a peaceful resolution available to MPs hostile to Johnson, with the ex-prime minister still reportedly willing to talk with both Sunak and minor candidate Penny Mordaunt on coming to some sort of agreement before the contest begins in earnest.