Boris: I had the numbers... but you can’t govern without party unity
BORIS Johnson last night abandoned his extraordinary bid to return to Downing Street.
In a dramatic late night statement, the former prime minister said he was pulling out of the race to succeed Liz Truss less than 24 hours before nominations close today.
Mr Johnson, who launched into the campaign after flying back from a Caribbean holiday on Friday night, insisted he did have the backing needed to enter the race – and had a ‘very good chance’ of winning.
But he said failure to agree a peace deal with either Rishi Sunak or Penny Mordaunt had raised doubts about whether he could unite the parliamentary party and ‘govern effectively’.
His decision, which was made public in a 9pm statement, ended a day of feverish speculation about his intentions.
All day allies had claimed that he had the 100 MPs needed to get on the ballot paper when nominations close at 2pm today. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and Cabinet Office minister Nadhim Zahawi were among the allies who publicly backed him yesterday as he tried to get the momentum needed to carry him over the line.
But, rival camps were sceptical, pointing out he had fewer than 60 declared supporters. Mr Johnson held talks with with Mr Sunak for three hours on Saturday in the hope of agreeing a deal to govern together.
But his estranged former chancellor, who was surging ahead in the race for nominations, rebuffed him.
Yesterday, an attempt by Mr Johnson to agree a tie up with Miss Mordaunt also failed.
Mr Johnson asked her to stand aside and join his campaign. But she refused and told him that most of her support would switch to Mr Sunak if she did.
In his statement last night, Mr Johnson said he had the 100 names needed to enter the contest and stated that he was optimistic he could have won if his name had gone forward to Conservative Party members.
But he added: ‘In the course of the last days, I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do.
‘ You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in Parliament.
‘And though I have reached out to both Rishi and Penny – because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest – we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this.
‘Therefore I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds.’
Mr Johnson’s decision will dismay his army of supporters, many of whom believe he represented the only chance the Conservatives have of salvaging their dire poll ratings in time to win the next election. All eyes will now turn to see if key supporters of Mr Johnson, such as Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, will also drop their hostility to Mr Sunak in the name of ending the Tory civil war.
Although allies said Mr Johnson was ‘up for it’, he never formally declared he was entering the race or made any public comment. His withdrawal is embarrassing for the string of Cabinet ministers who backed him.
Mr Zahawi, who served as chancellor in Mr Johnson’s final weeks in No 10, saw a piece backing his former boss go online just as Mr Johnson’s bombshell statement dropped.
He said earlier in the day: ‘Boris got the big calls right, whether it was ordering more vaccines ahead of more waves of Covid, arming Ukraine early against the advice of some, or stepping down for the sake of unity.
‘But now, Britain needs him back. We need to unite to deliver
on our manifesto. When I was chancellor, I saw a preview of what Boris would look like.
‘He was contrite and honest about his mistakes. He’d learned from those mistakes how he could run No 10 and the country better.’
In a humiliating climbdown last night, Mr Zahawi said he was now switching his backing to Mr Sunak.
He tweeted: ‘A day is a long time in politics… given today’s news, it’s clear that we should turn to Rishi Sunak to become our next prime minister.
‘Rishi is immensely talented, will command a strong majority in the parliamentary Conservative Party,
‘He got the big calls right’
and will have my full support and loyalty.’
Earlier, other allies insisted he could overcome the problems that saw him forced to quit No 10 in July when dozens of ministers resigned.
Mr Cleverly said the former PM has ‘learned lessons from his time in No 10 and will ensure the focus is on the needs of the country from day one’.
‘ I will be supporting him to return to the role of PM,’ he tweeted. ‘ We can all see the enormity of the challenges we face, from the war in Ukraine, to growing our economy.’
And ally Sir James Duddridge said yesterday: ‘Boris on good form at the 8am meeting with MPs. In a first for Boris he was rather smartly dressed!
‘he made it very clear the Privileges Committee must and will be allowed to get on with their process. he will cooperate fully.’
Even last night, Mr Johnson’s campaign was sharing a memo outlining the results of five recent polls that suggested he has the best chance of saving the Tories from electoral wipe-out.
The four-page document listed the results of surveys by leading pollsters indicating he would narrow the gap between Labour and the Tories, compared to Mr Sunak. It was titled Five Polls In The Last Five Days That Show That Boris Johnson Is The Best Chance The Conservatives have At Avoiding Electoral Wipe-out.
Mr Rees-Mogg, the Business Secretary, insisted there was a ‘great deal of support’ for Mr Johnson despite the lack of public declarations. he told the BBC: ‘The system is the proposer and seconders names are made public.
‘Other people have a choice as to whether to make their names public or not, but the people who are doing the numbers for Boris’s campaign tell me that they have the numbers, so the 100 that is necessary of the members of parliament are there.’
he hailed Mr Johnson’s record – from delivering Brexit to supporting Ukraine and leading Britain through the pandemic.
‘he won a majority of 80. he won hartlepool in a by- election. he has been the greatest electoral asset the Conservative Party has had in modern times and if you look at the poll in the Mail on Sunday ( MoS) today, he’s the one who appeals most to people who voted Conservative in 2019, that extraordinary coalition he put together.’
The MoS poll showed Mr Johnson retained a level of electoral magnetism far outstripping that of any of his party colleagues.
Although Labour would still be expected to have a ten-point lead if Mr Johnson had become prime minister, the projected Labour majority of 26 would not have been so catastrophic.
The same cannot be said of the 124-seat majority Labour are predicted to win if Mr Sunak were leader, or the record-breaking 320seat majority if Miss Truss were still at the helm.
‘Greatest electoral asset’