As U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned from her position after 45 days in office, ousted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is attempting a comeback to the position despite being forced to resign in disgrace less than three months ago.
Liz Truss’ resignation comes after taking over from Boris Johnson around 44 days ago, amidst a loss of confidence on her leadership due to her controversial ‘mini-budget’ economic policies that crashed the United Kingdom’s economy and made her deeply unpopular with the public, according to Sky News.
“I recognise, though, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative Party,” she said. “I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative Party.”
With her position now vacant, many Conservative Party members of Parliament are looking for a potential successor to Truss’ short reign as Prime Minister. In a surprising twist of events, however, ousted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson is looking as a significant “unity” candidate that many MPs are reportedly rallying around on, The Telegraph reported.
Johnson is narrowly behind frontrunner Rishi Sunak, who was among the ministers of his cabinet who resigned and pushed for Johnson’s resignation. In an attempt to build his candidacy as Prime Minister up, Johnson has reportedly offered an “olive branch” to Sunak as a way of working together.
The people rallying behind Johnson said that his win in the last election gives him a public mandate unlike many of the other candidates for the job, and that he may be the only one that could help keep the Tories’ majority in Parliament intact for the next election, CNN reported.
“If the Tories are serious about winning in 2024 and want to stop a general election before then they need to revert to the guy with a mandate who is a seasoned campaigner,” an unnamed ally said.
“We need someone who can come in, we need somebody who can bring people together, somebody who actually has got that mandate. So a mandate from people in the last general election, a mandate from party members and somebody actually who can get this party going again, get us winning elections again,” Brendan Clarke-Smith said. “The only person that I think that ticks all those boxes is Boris Johnson.”
Despite this, many are still skeptical that Johnson would be able to pull off a return to his role as Prime Minister due to being forced out of the position just three months ago.
“I don’t think a sufficient enough time has probably passed for the party to then unite behind him and for me this now is about us, frankly, being grown up, being pragmatic and putting the country first,” member of Parliament Justin Tomlinson said.
Johnson is reportedly returning from a Caribbean holiday on Friday to start meeting his backers for the potential campaign.
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