Why Boris Johnson pulled out

Boris Johnson has this evening pulled out of the Conservative leadership contest, leaving the field clear for Rishi Sunak. Only this morning his MP supporters had been insisting that the former prime minster had secured the 100 MP nominations required and would definitely run, but Johnson says the opposition to him is such that he will not enter the race – but there were severe doubts about this, with some MPs saying they were being approached by a desperate Boris team that did not have the numbers but had claimed otherwise. Sunak had more than twice as many declared nominations.

In a statement released this evening, Johnson he’d hit ‘the very high hurdle of 102 nominations’ and so there was a good chance he could be ‘back in Downing Street on Friday’ given his popularity with the membership. But upon reflection, he said, he’d better not. From his statement:-

 ‘I believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative election victory in 2024.