With calls for Boris Johnson to resign – who could be next to lead Britain?

Keir Starmer is the current favourite with the bookies, which is mixed news for the Tories, argues Sean O’Grady

Boris Johnson is clinging to power after receiving a penalty notice for Partygate (PA)

It’s at buzzing times of crisis such as this – with 57 per cent of respondents to a snap YouGov poll believing Boris Johnson should resign as prime minister in the wake of being issued a fine over a Covid-19 lockdown party, and calls from political rivals to go – that there is one place to naturally turn for guidance about the nation’s future. Not to the “senior backbenchers”, the academic historians or anyone else – but rather to the bookies for their guidance about the nation’s future. Who is in line to lead Britain next?

The answer is Keir Starmer, according to Oddschecker (I have no interests to declare, by the way). That’s mixed news for the Tories. It seems to indicate that Boris Johnson is still safe enough in his job that be will in due course lead the Tories into the next election, and at a time of his choosing – but that he will most likely lose it.

Away from Starmer being the favourite to be the next prime minister (about 3/1), the most favoured Tory is now Liz Truss, though at longish odds (6/1). A frontrunner for a while now, she has seen off the self-combusting chancellor Rishi Sunak (11/1 and drifting out), but the war in Ukraine has seen her naturally overshadowed by the prime minister. She’s steady, but maybe losing a bit of momentum.