After more than three years as prime minister, Mr Johnson is heading to the back, where he is expected to be defiant, cause trouble and plot a Trump-style comeback. He insists he will be loyal to his successor – and yet refuses to rule out a comeback. “Mission largely accomplished – for now!” he said at his last prime minister’s questions in July. Top Tories, close allies and even a former girlfriend agree that his resentment of his killers – as he sees them – means he will bide his time until he is ready to strike back. Politics Hub: Boris Johnson ‘could be tempted’ to run again And as he heads for the back, the former prime minister is already entering an almighty streak as the old wounds that led to his downfall are reopened. The inquiry by the Privileges Committee into allegations he lied to MPs about partygate and the allegations against former deputy leader Chris Pincher could see him suspended or even expelled from the Commons. A legal ruling by top QC Lord Pannick that the inquiry is “fundamentally flawed” has prompted calls from Johnson’s allies – who have condemned the inquiry as a “witch hunt” and a “kangaroo court” – for the inquiry to be dropped. Liz Truss signaled during the Tory leadership campaign that she would vote to scrap it, a move that would plunge her into a damaging cover-up and cronyism row. But there will be a fierce battle over the inquiry as MPs return to Westminster after the summer break. Behind the scenes, Mr Johnson will no doubt be looking to defend his legacy and is expected to speak out on causes he cares about, including net zero, rising standards and Ukraine, where there are four ways – and a cake – with the his name. He also joins another former Tory prime minister, Theresa May, whose death he plotted with his Brexiteer allies after resigning as Foreign Secretary in 2018. Who will Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle call first in debates and ministerial statements? The Erskine May Parliamentary Rulebook (no relation!) offers no guidance. Mrs May, first elected in 1997, has been an MP for longer, although Sir Lindsay could use his discretion to call Mr Johnson first on some issues, such as Ukraine, for example. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:36 May doesn’t applaud Johnson in his latest PMQs Johnson has the form to cause backbenchers problems It is unusual but by no means unheard of to have two former prime ministers on the green benches behind the current holder of 10 Downing Street. And the precedent of back-to-back drivers does not bode well. While Harold Wilson and James Callaghan both sat on Labour’s backs from 1979 to 1983, the odd frame of Sir Edward Heath filled the corner seat under the flyover, just meters from the prime minister and the despatch box, for 27 years from the general election of February 1974. defeat until he left parliament in 2001. He was joined on the backbenches between 1990 and 1992 by his sworn enemy Margaret Thatcher after she was ousted in a cabinet coup and by John Major after his 1997 Labor landslide defeat. Sir Edward’s sour vigilance and 25-year feud with Mrs Thatcher earned him the nickname “the incredible pout”. And Mrs Thatcher clashed with Mr Major over his handling of the economy just weeks after he took over in 1990. Boris Johnson, of course, is fit to cause trouble from the Tory benches. Days after he resigned as foreign secretary over Brexit in July 2018, he re-emerged in the blistering political fray as Mrs May struggled to contain open war in the Conservative Party. He complained that a “fog of self-doubt” had settled over the government and accused the prime minister of misleading voters and putting the UK “in limbo”. And making clear her job, she added: “It’s not too late to save Brexit.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:59 Will you rule out a comeback? The prime minister has steadfastly refused to rule out a return A few weeks later, at the 2018 Tory conference in Birmingham, he again launched an explosive attack on Mrs May’s Brexit plan. “Chuck checks!” he shouted to 1,500 adoring activists at a fringe meeting. This time is different, however, he argues. “My intention and what I will certainly do is to give my full and unreserved support to whoever takes over,” he said during his farewell tour last week. And in this weekend’s Sunday Express, he wrote: “This is the time for every Conservative to rally and back (the) new leader wholeheartedly.” And yet Mr Johnson has steadfastly refused to rule out a return, no doubt flattered by a Sky News-YouGov Conservative leadership poll which showed almost half of Conservative Party members want him back. When asked “What if Boris Johnson was actually on the ballot?” won overwhelmingly. Some 46% said they would vote for him – almost double the 24% for Liz Truss and 23% for Rishi Sunak. Talk of ‘seven-figure sum’ for Johnson’s memoirs There was also a Bring Back Boris petition, organized by Tory donor Lord Crundas, demanding a rule change so the outgoing prime minister could join Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak on the leadership ballot. Former Tory cabinet minister Rory Stewart compared Johnson to former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi and Donald Trump’s soul mate in hopes of a comeback. The Sunday Times quoted a senior government official as claiming: “Boris is now getting two lots of advice. Some people are telling him to go away and have a nice life and make a lot of money. Others are fueling the backstabbing theory and suggesting he will could return.” And what about the money? It has been claimed that Mr Johnson hopes to make up to £10million in his first year in Downing Street. Tory ally Lord Marland claims Johnson’s priority is to “put hay in the attic” to pay off his debts. He will be able to claim up to £115,000 of taxpayers’ cash a year for “public duties”. There is already talk of a ‘seven-figure sum’ deal for his memoirs, in excess of £800,000 for David Cameron, as well as completing a book on Shakespeare. Then there are the newspaper columns – he eventually called the Daily Telegraph “his real boss”, according to Dominic Cummings – and he signed up to a speakers’ bureau for £250,000 a speech. Of course, he would have to declare his earnings if he remains an MP, although he has broken Register of Members’ Interests rules in the past and clashed with the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner and the Electoral Commission over late declarations, a Mustika holiday and ‘wallpaper-gate’ ». Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 2:55 Will Boris Johnson make a comeback? “I would never write him off” However, he will need to remain in the Commons if he plans a political comeback. If he survives the Privileges Committee inquiry or is rejected in a Commons vote, at the next election he will defend a majority of 7,210 in Uxbridge and South Ruislip, not the most impregnable given Tory support in the polls. An indication of Mr Johnson’s intentions – whether he will indeed be loyal to his successor or cause trouble – will be whether he plans to attend the Tory conference next month. As he showed with his 2018 attack on Theresa May, he enjoys a position with party activists somewhere between god and rock star. His reception by these adoring activists would overshadow and humiliate his successor. In a farewell interview with the Daily Express, Mr Johnson said it was “TBC” whether he would attend the Conservative conference this year. So it doesn’t rule that out either. Asked about his old boss’s intentions at Sophy Ridge on Sky News on Sunday, Mr Johnson’s veteran ally Lord Lister predicted: “I would never say anything with Boris Johnson. Anything is possible in the future.” And echoing a famous Boris Johnson quote from 2013 about his leadership ambitions, he added: “If the ball comes loose then anything could happen. I would never write him off.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:58 pm The “goodbye, baby” moment. “Hasta La Vista, Baby” The latest word on Boris’ intentions for the future comes from his ex-girlfriend Petronella Wyatt, who had a four-year relationship with him when they worked at The Spectator magazine, which he edited. “Knowing Boris as I do, there is no doubt he is planning a political comeback,” he tweeted last week. “If he wasn’t, he would be separated from the members’ petition calling for his resignation to be voted on. “He has not once denied the rumors that he intends to return.” In his final PMQs, saying his mission was “largely accomplished – for now”, Mr Johnson repeated Arnold Schwarzenegger’s famous line “Hasta La Vista, Baby”, which roughly translates to: “See you later later”. He also offered this advice to his successor: “Always remember to check the mirror.” Sound advice as ex-PM becomes Boris.
