Is Boris Johnson oven-ready for a return to the Tory front line?

As rumours swirl about a Boris Johnson comeback, Sean O’Grady looks at what impact the former prime minister could make in the floundering Tory general election campaign

Look to the future: the former PM appears satisfied to snipe from the sidelines but could that change? (PA)

Voters in Britain suffering an unusually cold and rainy summer will no doubt have been heartened by an Instagram post from Carrie Johnson showing the former prime minister’s latest family on holiday “in beautiful Sardinia”. Perhaps that was just her way of scotching rumours that Boris Johnson is about to give up the Mediterranean sun and rush back to go door-knocking in those crucial East Midlands marginals. But rumours of some sort of Johnson comeback have been swirling on and off almost since he was pushed out of the Commons for lying to parliament. Some believe, to borrow a phrase, that he is oven-ready for a return...

What are the rumours?

They are that Johnson is being “drafted” by a desperate Conservative campaign to counter the threat from Nigel Farage and Reform UK. The Tories are organising a direct mailshot of letters signed by Johnson to wavering Tory supporters. Johnson is following the current Conservative narrative in the letters warning that a vote for Reform is not only a vote for Keir Starmer but also to put Labour in power “for a generation”.