Boris Johnson could be back as Tory leader before the next election because no one else can “out-Farage Farage”, one of his loyalist allies has claimed.
Former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries argues the Conservatives would have won the summer’s election if the former PM had not been ousted from office.
She said: “He would have knocked Starmer into orbit. There is no better communicator than Boris Johnson.”
Ms Dorries suggests that if new Tory leader Kemi Badenoch does not put the party on the path back to power then powerful Conservatives could tell Mr Johnson: “I’m very sorry, we need you back.”
She fears that the absence of Mr Johnson from frontline politics has allowed Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to take centre stage – with dangerous consequences for the Tories.
She told the Sunday Express: “There are red lights flashing on the road ahead which tell us that week by week Nigel Farage is growing on the political stage. I would say the only reason that is happening is because Boris Johnson has exited that political stage.
“That is facilitating his growth, both in popularity and as the alternative.”
In her new book, Downfall, she writes that if the “chaos continues” then “Boris is the only person who can out-Farage Farage,” adding: “There may come a point in time, in a year or two from now, when Conservative MPs realise that only one man can save them as they face a looming general election that, thanks to a surging and seemingly unstoppable Reform party, is forecast to be even worse than the last.”
According to Ms Dorries, the key question is whether Mr Johnson – who has forged a lucrative career as a public speaker and columnist – wants to return to the political fray.
“Of course I want to see him there,” she said. “I make no apology for that. The problem is, does he want it?”
She warns that today’s MPs would have to go to him on bended knee, saying: “There’s no way they’ll get him back if they don’t.”
The Tories will be in grave danger of electoral annihilation, she argues, if Reform UK moderates its positions so it can appeal to a broader audience.
“If Boris isn’t there and Nigel Farage starts to talk in more moderate language about policy then he will wipe the Conservative party out,” she said.
Ms Dorries argues the ex-PM’s “genius” was building a broad case of support by championing not just Brexit but levelling-up and environmental concerns.
“That was Boris Johnson’s genius,” she said. “He knew he needed everybody.”
In her book, written before the Tory leadership results were announced, she predicted that if Mrs Badenoch won she would “face a vote of no confidence and will be removed by MPs and will never get close to a general election”.
She insists she wants Mrs Badenoch to succeed as Tory leader because she wants “Labour out”.
But she cautions: “The people who put her there – what is important to them is power. And if they think she isn’t going to deliver them power they will remove her and replace her with someone who will.
“I wouldn’t put it past them to even go back to Boris Johnson at some stage and say, ‘I’m very sorry, we need you back’.”
She says the key reason Rishi Sunak went for the snap election is that he “absolutely hated being prime minister”.
“He believed that the minute he removed Boris Johnson and he was put in place that the polls would rise,” she said. “He would be seen as some kind of new messiah, coming over the water to save the Conservative party and it was just the opposite and he couldn’t bear it.”
A return by Boris Johnson to the green benches would be one of the biggest comebacks in modern times.
But a former minister said: “He’s one of the great comeback kings of politics. Why not?”
Mr Johnson quit as PM in July 2022 following the mass resignation of ministers.
His premiership was rocked by the uproar over “partygate” and claims Mr Johnson had been told allegations about Chris Pincher before he appointed him deputy chief whip. He then resigned as an MP in June 2023, claiming the cross-party committee that investigated whether he misled Parliament over lockdown-era parties was “determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament”.
His fans believe he still has much to offer the party.
An ex-minister who wants the Tories to harness his campaigning talents said: “Boris Johnson is an important figure in political life who has a unique ability to cut through to the public. I’d welcome his involvement in a campaigning role for the Conservatives.”
And a prominent grassroots activist suggested he could helm the party again: “If Boris were to return as an MP within the next year then I think he’s a natural to fight the next election, actually. I think that is a credible scenario.”
However, a former minister and ally of the ex-PM said: “Sadly, I believe the vast majority of Tory MPs we have at the moment do not, and would not, support Boris as leader again. If Boris were to work with Reform I think he would wipe Labour out.
“Sadly, I can’t see that happening either at the moment.”
