The big hope for Boris Johnson, according to Dominic Cummings, was that Liz Truss’s likely implosion as Prime Minister might give him a fighting chance of making a triumphant return to Number 10. The first weeks of Truss’s premiership have not exactly been auspicious, leading some betting markets to already put Johnson among the favourites to succeed her. But history is against it: the last ex-party leader and former prime minister to return to both roles was the Liberal William Gladstone in 1880. There might still be some hope for Boris, though: the post-prime ministerial career of one of his Conservative predecessors, Edward Heath, is cause for encouragement.
Today few Conservatives talk of Heath. His career is defined by failure: he lost three of the four elections contested during his ten years as leader. Heath did unexpectedly win the 1970 election but while his government started with huge ambitions it ended less than four years later a broken reed.
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