LONDRES (EUROPA PRESS)
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to the country this Saturday after a family vacation in the Dominican Republic and with speculation about his possible candidacy to lead the Government and the Conservative Party on the front page of the main British newspapers.
Johnson returns just after the resignation of Liz Truss as prime minister last Thursday and in the middle of an express process of the ‘tory’ party to choose his successor within a week.
Johnson has arrived at London’s Gatwick Airport on a tourist class flight that he boarded early in the Dominican Republic, according to Sky News, whose correspondent has reported “some boos” from other passengers.
Johnson resigned just six weeks ago after the party scandals in full confinement, the ‘partygate’, and after the cascading resignations of his ministers. However, he has the explicit support of some party heavyweights: Jacob Rees-Mogg, Ben Wallace or Simon Clarke, but he must obtain the support of a hundred deputies before 2:00 p.m. on Monday to be able to compete.
Those sympathetic to Johnson believe that if he gets 100 signatures, he will prevail in the online voting of affiliates that will face the two candidates with the most support since he is still quite popular among the conservative bases.
To his credit Johnson also has to be the visible face of the biggest recent electoral victory of the ‘Tories’, in 2019, when the Labor Party obtained the worst results since the Second World War.
However, other voices, such as Jesse Norman, warn that electing Johnson would be “absolutely catastrophic” and Roger Gale has already warned that if this option is consummated, he would resign from being a representative of the Conservative Party and go to the group of independent.
For Dominic Raab, “we cannot go backwards”. He also recalled that Johnson is the subject of an investigation commission for the ‘partygate’. “We can’t have another episode of Groundhog Day, of the ‘partygate’ soap opera. We have to get on with the country and the government,” Raab told the BBC.
Analysts at Berenberg Bank have warned of the risk of a second Johnson government, according to ‘The Financial Times’. “A majority of Conservative MPs do not want Johnson as leader, so there could be mass resignations and an even greater spiral of chaos prolonged over time,” the bank has warned its clients.
