Party darling an election liability

IT is quite simply make-or-break time for Boris Johnson’s bid to topple Theresa May.

Some insiders believe he may publicly challenge for the Tory leadership this week. Others think he will keep his powder dry until the party conference at the end of the month.

He is to address a thousand-strong rally of activists at the annual meeting in Birmingham and is expected to ramp up Brexiteer opposition to the Prime Minister’s Chequers plan.

But Mr Johnson faces a fight to the death as Mrs May refuses to give up her crown.

The Mirror understands she will begin wining and dining Eurosceptic Tory MPs in groups of 10 from this week in a last-ditch bid to get them to back her Brexit blueprint.

It is a dangerous tactic with insiders telling this newspaper she is risking some MPs going back to Mr Johnson to reveal all the vital details of how she tried to woo them.

But her charm offensive is a must as other Brexiteers step up their bid to kill off Chequers.

By the time we reach 2019, the Tories may well have a new leader – and it could be Mr Johnson.

But even if he manages to steal Mrs May’s crown, he may well have simultaneously killed off his own chances of a general election victory.

Mr Johnson’s shameless knifing of rivals may win over diehard Tories. But it is unlikely to win him the wider public’s adoring love and votes.