Boris johnson

Ping! An email pops up in Steerpike's inbox. 'Boris Johnson's memoir acquired by HarperCollins' roars the subject line, heralding the arrival of an effusive press release to mark the exciting news. Not content with earning £250,000 per speech and unveiling portraits of himself, it seems our former PM has decided that the time is now right for his considered reflections on his time in office (read: settle some old scores and make off with the moolah.) In suitably gushing tones, Arabella Pike, the publicity director of the HarperCollins publishing house, promises that: ‘This will be a prime ministerial memoir like no other.

To the Carlton Club, that Palladian monument to power. Last night it hosted the unveiling of Boris Johnson's new portrait, at a lavish dinner featuring the former premier as a guest of honour. The Carlton hasn't always been the happiest of places for Johnson: it was here last summer that 'Pinchergate' began, resulting in the downfall of the government he led. But it was all smiles when Johnson took to his feet, to deliver his speech of thanks, with one guest quipping to Mr S: 'At least we didn't have to pay him £250,000 for the privilege.' The Old Etonian has made his political interventions carefully since leaving Downing Street, amid much excited talk to 'Bring back Boris.' So it was perhaps not so much what Johnson said as what he didn't actually say.

Is 2023 going to be the year of Boris? Much of the commentariat seems to think it’s possible, with the supremely-connected Paul Goodman writing this week in the Times that Johnson’s return to No. 10 ‘has a certain plausibility to his Westminster supporters.’ And now that same august paper of record has published another intriguing article by a onetime Tory MP, hinting at Bozza’s possible new year plans. Matthew Parris writes in his notebook today about rumours sweeping the Peak District that Johnson is about to do the infamous ‘chicken run’ by switching from his London base to a safer seat ahead of the next election.

During the summer leadership race between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, Sunak’s team were braced for a bloodbath if he won. It would have required a major polling error and gone down as one of the biggest political upsets in recent years. ‘If we win, we win by 1 per cent,’ was how one close ally of Sunak put it at the time. If this had played out, it would have come as a nasty surprise to many in the Tory party. With wounds still raw from Boris Johnson’s departure, the deposed former PM’s loyalists would have quickly gone on the offensive – accusing Sunak of being a traitor for resigning in Johnson’s dying days. Supporters of Truss, meanwhile, would have claimed the tiny win meant that he didn’t have a mandate for his fiscal plan and pushed instead for immediate tax cuts.

Does Boris have the numbers? That's the question all Westminster is asking today. There's been much excitement about an anonymous briefing that seems to have gone out to half the parliamentary press gallery. BBC Pol Ed Chris Mason quotes a source close to Boris Johnson as claiming that he has 'now has more than 100 backers and so could be on the ballot if he chooses to be'. The interesting word there is 'could'. According to Coffee House's own list here Johnson has 54 public backers as of 3:30 p.m today, meaning there are 46 undeclared backers still out there. Is that really plausible? There may be MPs keeping their powder dry for all sorts of reasons – party whips for instance have to remain neutral.

Suddenly, out of the blue, comes a saviour. The Lib Dems have failed to capitalise on the downfall of Liz Truss. As the Tories’ polling hits record lows, all of the gains are going to Labour. This weekend, Ed Davey and his colleagues will be praying for the return of Boris Johnson. Boris was gold dust for the Lib Dems. In Ed Davey’s coveted Blue Wall seats across southern England, Boris was their greatest asset near the end of his premiership. These seats are traditionally Tory but lean Remain and socially liberal. They are also filled with the type of voters who would respond most warmly to Rishi Sunak’s ‘sensible’ calm-the-markets style of leadership.

The question on everyone’s lips tonight is whether Boris Johnson can get 100 MP nominations by Monday. This is the bar that the 1922 committee have set. Johnson’s supporters have been coming out tonight at pace: he is up to 20-odd supporters already. But the question of whether he can get to 100 is difficult given the circumstances that led to his departure and the coming privileges committee investigation. Johnson’s advocates, though, think that if he can get that 100 and make it to the member’s round, then he will become the favourite.

In the past few minutes, Conor Burns has been told to leave the government after a complaint of 'serious misconduct' was made against him. Downing Street has released a statement saying:  Following a complaint of serious misconduct, the Prime Minister has asked Conor Burns MP to leave the government with immediate effect. The Prime Minister took direct action on being informed of this allegation and is clear that all ministers should maintain the high standards of behaviour – as the public rightly expects. No. 10’s press release is keen to stress that the Prime Minister took immediate action Burns was moved sideways by Liz Truss in the recent reshuffle, from Northern Ireland to the same Minister of State position in the International Trade department.

The ejection of Boris Johnson from Downing Street today proves that the UK has not gone the way of Donald Trump’s United States, Viktor Orbán’s Hungary or Narendra Modi’s India. For all our faults, the strongman model of leader ends in farce rather than fascism here. Liberal critics ought to be big enough to concede that Conservative MPs – more than any opposition party, movement or institution – saved us from populist authoritarianism. No doubt they did so for impure and self-interested reasons, but this is politics and it is deeds – not motives – that matter most. Johnson’s failure to impose his will on his parliamentary party was his greatest mistake.

Levelling up is probably not even in the top tier of Liz Truss's intray for this week, given the pressure to do something big on energy bills, and then to address the multiple other crises including the NHS, the Northern Ireland Protocol and Ukraine. But what she does with her predecessor's flagship policy is a matter of great anxiety for MPs and activists in Red Wall seats. I spent some time over the weekend with Conservative councillors, MPs and Tory members in Greater Manchester. Unsurprisingly, most of them had supported Truss as be party leader. But most of them were also anxious about the future of levelling up, or whatever the new prime minister decides to call it to make it her own.

Boris Johnson’s last set piece speech today was typical him. There were references to Ladybird books, attempts to blame the last Labour government, not much detail but lots of optimism about how things are about to get better. Johnson has so dominated British politics these past few years that it is hard to imagine it without him. (Of course, he won’t disappear – which will cause its own problems for his successor – but he’ll no longer be PM). As I say in the magazine this week, his absence will reshape the political landscape because his presence defined it. Keir Starmer has relished attacking Johnson, but he must now pivot.