According to British media, Johnson decided not to fight for the premiership since it could jeopardize his potential earnings coming from books and speeches.
The report suggested that since his resignation in July, Johnson had been engaged in talks with several talent agencies - including Ari Emanuel's firm Endeavour and the Harry Walker Agency (HWA) - and sales of his memoirs could bring him up to £20 million (over $22 million) per year.
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak (R) sits beside Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (C) at a Cabinet meeting of senior government ministers at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in London on September 1, 2020.
© AFP 2023 / TOBY MELVILLE
After Truss resigned in October, BoJo had enough nominations from the Conservative backbenchers (over a limit of 100). However, BoJo was reportedly told that his appeal to the potential readers around the globe would be seriously damaged if he lost the battle to Rishi Sunak. Thus, he could have lost at least half of his potential earnings, media said.
Addressing the reports, a spokesman for Johnson stressed that financial reasons were “totally irrelevant” in his decision not to run for PM. The spokesman repeated BoJo's statement, in which he claimed that entering the race again "would simply not be the right thing to do".
Johnson is not the first Conservative politician to have switched to a celebrity career - former health secretary Matt Hancock previously starred on the ITV show "I'm a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!", and he was reportedly paid £400,000 (around $438,000) for his participation.