Could bringing back Boris save the Tories? That’s the question people have been asking ever since he was forced out as Prime Minister in 2022. And it’s come up again now, after a poll found nearly two thirds of Conservative voters would like Boris Johnson to replace Kemi Badenoch as Tory leader.
But Boris, celebrating the birth of his ninth child after wife Carrie gave birth to a daughter in May, can’t solve the Conservative Party’s problems. In fact, he’d only make them worse. It’s true of course that the Tories won a massive landslide general election victory when he was leader in 2019, as former Labour voters in the red wall placed their trust in the Tories.
Now, people are seriously asking whether the Conservative Party might be finished as a serious contender for Government, and one poll has even put them in fourth place behind Reform, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
Tim Montgomerie, a former Boris adviser who now backs Reform – but still has plenty of friends in the Conservative Party – says some Conservative MPs are talking to Boris Johnson about offering him their safe seats. That would only bring him back into Parliament as an ordinary MP, but Tories whio want Boris back at Westminster imagine him playing a big role in the party and maybe even becoming leader once again.
It seems. however, that Mr Johnson himself has given up any hope of making a triumphant return. And the Conservative Party can count their lucky stars for that, because a Boris comeback would be a disaster.
For a start, many Tory MPs really hate him. And hate might seem like a strong word, but it’s accurate here.
They were never that worried about “partygate”, the claims that Mr Johnson broke the Covid rules he was forcing the rest of us to obey.
The fact that he briefly had some apple juice and a sandwich one afternoon in Number 10 – accompanied by his wife and people who worked in the same building anyway – didn’t turn the party against him.
What mattered far more was his failure to deal with Christopher Pincher, the former Conservative Deputy Chief Whip who resigned from his government role after getting very drunk at a London club and reportedly groping two men. It was claimed that Mr Johnson knew about earlier incidents, but treated them as a joke and appointed Mr Pincher to the whip’s office anyway.
This was a scandal at the time, but the average voter probably knows far more about “parties in Number 10” today. However, it’s Pincher, not parties, that turned Tory MPs against Boris – and they haven’t forgotten.
The other problem with Mr Johnson, at least as far as MPs are concerned, is that he’s a viewed as having failed as PM on some of the issues they care most about, particularly controlling immigration.
Many Tory MPs just wouldn’t accept him as leader. Bringing him back would spark a new civil war – destroying any hopes of a Conservative revival.
And he’s not as popular with the public as some of his fans imagine. Polling expert Peter Kellner has analysed the data and published his conclusions in his Substack newsletter. He said: “Most voters think he’s weak. Big majorities say he is indecisive and incompetent. And he is overwhelmingly regarded as untrustworthy. Not surprisingly, he does better with Tory and Reform voters on each characteristic – but, apart from being likeable, plenty of right-of-centre voters have their doubts, especially on whether they trust him.
“All in all, he does not look like a vote winner. Bringing him back would be a big risk.
In the dying days of Boris’s premiership allies launched a campaign to support him known as “save Big Dog”. Clearly, the Tories are facing a crisis today but Boris Johnson is not the answer. Tories should let sleeping big dogs lie.