The controversial former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will not run for the top job having failed to convince at least 100 Conservative MPs – which is the required threshold – that he would do better if given a second chance. His main rival Rishi Sunak, who is likely to become the next prime minister, has more than 150 backers.
Most analysts submit that the numerous scandals that Boris oversaw during his time in office remain his biggest stumbling block to wielding official political power once again.
“The anti-Boris coalition is very vocal and he thinks two-thirds of the party are against him and it will make the party ungovernable, so he can’t do it, and it will go the way of Liz Truss,” one of his former supporters argue.
The scandal-ridden ex-PM known for his signature bad hair conceded that: “trying to get back into No 10 now isn’t the right thing to do. “You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament,” he said.
While Sunak, the man behind the unceremonious fall of Boris, was hoping to beat Johnson by two to one among MPs, the former PM would have likely won the vote if Conservative Party members had their say. The embattled Tories would then be in the worst of all worlds, with another PM the parliamentary party didn’t want.
Reporting for Sky News, political editor Beth Rigby observes that, “there was a question mark over whether Mr Johnson would even be able to fill all the roles (up to 170 MPs) in his government given so many would simply not serve under him.”