Katy Balls Katy Balls

Chaos with Boris Johnson?

The partygate inquiry still hangs over the Tories

The chance of a Boris Johnson comeback has risen dramatically since Liz Truss’s resignation. Over 40 MPs have so far come out to publicly back him while today’s papers are filled with briefings about how the former prime minister would be best placed to save the party from electoral doom. Now it’s no great secret that plenty of Johnson loyalists backed Liz Truss in the last leadership election primarily to stop Rishi Sunak. There were some MPs who always said Johnson should return. Now as MPs consider recent dire polling, factoring it into their own electoral calculus to see whether they would lose their seat, more are beginning to ask whether Johnson is worth a gamble.

Were he to re-enter No. 10, Johnson could try to throw out the whole process or whip his party against supporting any punishment

Johnson comes with baggage. And there is one problem in particular: the privileges committee inquiry.

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