Allies of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson are reportedly working behind the scenes to orchestrate a dramatic return to the leadership of the Conservative Party, as pressure mounts on current leader Kemi Badenoch following a wave of electoral setbacks and declining poll numbers.
The development comes in the wake of devastating local election results earlier this month, in which the Conservatives lost more than 600 councillors and control of all the councils they previously held. Badenoch, who succeeded Rishi Sunak as party leader in November after defeating Robert Jenrick, has also struggled to win over critics in Parliament, with concerns raised over her performances at Prime Minister’s Questions.
A recent YouGov poll placed the Conservatives in fourth place nationally, trailing Labour, Reform UK, and the Liberal Democrats. With the party’s standing in freefall, speculation has intensified about the possibility of leadership change — despite party rules that prevent a formal confidence vote before 2 November.
Sources have revealed that a faction of Conservatives is actively pushing for Johnson’s return, believing he is the only figure with enough political gravitas to challenge Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and revive the party’s fortunes. One senior Tory, speaking to The Sun on Sunday, said: “Some of the old gang around Boris Johnson are back texting and in talks to get him to return. The feeling is he is the only man who can take on Nigel Farage and win. They want to bring back Boris.”
According to another party insider, even some staff at Conservative headquarters have begun covertly supporting what has been dubbed “Project Boris.” The Sunday Times reported that Johnson loyalists are exploring options to modify party rules, potentially allowing him to lead from outside Parliament until the next general election. Johnson, who stepped down as MP in 2023, has remained politically active, particularly on foreign policy issues such as Ukraine and Brexit.
A recent More in Common poll indicated that Johnson is the only potential leader under whom the Conservatives outperform Farage’s Reform UK in public support.
While the possibility of Johnson’s return remains unofficial, supporters are considering a range of tactics to force Badenoch’s resignation. These include initiating a confidence vote at the party’s national convention, campaigning for a rules change to permit an earlier parliamentary vote, publishing a letter signed by more than half of Conservative MPs calling for her to step down, or staging mass resignations from the shadow cabinet.
Former Johnson aide Guto Harri told Times Radio that the party may soon face another leadership contest. “The danger there is that the party makes the wrong decision again and chooses somebody like Robert Jenrick, who’s a pale imitation of what Kemi Badenoch is trying to be a pale imitation of, which is Nigel Farage and Reform,” he said.
However, not all senior Conservatives support a leadership change. Former Cabinet minister Michael Gove issued a warning against removing Badenoch, arguing that doing so would send the wrong message to the public. “The people who are anxious to get rid of Kemi don’t themselves have a convincing answer of what the Conservative Party should do,” Gove said. “And I actually think that if the Conservative Party were to do that, it would confirm even further a reputation in people’s minds, that we were only interested in ourselves, and not actually interested in what was good for the whole country.”
As internal party tensions rise, all eyes remain on Boris Johnson and whether he will heed the calls of his supporters to stage a political comeback ahead of the next general election.
