Boris Johnson apparently expects once again to be Britain’s prime minister - and in the near future - despite announcing his resignation from that post earlier this month.
As Johnson's former aide Tim Montgomerie recently revealed on social media, the caretaker prime minister is “telling aides that he’ll be PM again within a year”.
This comes as approximately 7,600 Conservative Party members signed a petition calling for a vote on whether Johnson should continue as prime minister, The Daily Telegraph has said.
The petition was organized by the party’s former treasurer, Peter, Lord Cruddas of Shoreditch, who said that “several MPs” had started to “make noises” about his campaign.
“There is complete and utter despair and disbelief at what has happened,” one cabinet minister loyal to Johnson told the newspaper. “It is no wonder that the grassroots members feel their voices have been cancelled out by a minority in the Parliamentary party. These are the same people who year after year, decade after decade, have chosen to silence the membership of the Conservative Party for their own preferment and betterment. And that is wrong.”
But despite concerns that this campaign, if more Tory MPs support it, might undermine the contest for the party leadership between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, senior party members urged MPs to move on, the newspaper notes.
“The Prime Minister stood down voluntarily. He is not playing any part in this leadership contest. He is not a candidate,” said Sir Robert Buckland, Secretary of State for Wales. “The focus now is on bringing the party together and winning the next election under a new leader.”
On 7 July, Boris Johnson announced his resignation as the UK's prime minister in the wake of a flood of resignations from his government.
Calls for Johnson to resign began after it was revealed that a number of social gatherings - dubbed "partygate" - were held in No 10 Downing Street at the height of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, despite stringent rules against socializing introduced by his government.
But Johnson sealed his fate when his claim that he knew nothing about the reputation of Tamworth MP, Christopher Pincher - who was accused of sexual assault - when he appointed him deputy chief whip, was exposed as a lie.