Outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson could launch another tilt for the top job after raking in cash, a close ally has claimed.
Tory peer Lord Marland, who spearheaded Mr Johnson’s 2008 London mayoral campaign, fuelled claims the doomed leader could try to revive his premiership – after filling his bank account.
“I think there’s a distinct possibility,” he told the BBC.
“The scenario could be that we lose the next election, we could be looking for a leader who can win elections – and of course Boris Johnson has that.
“As he said to me the other day, he wants to go and put hay in the loft – in other words to build up his bank balance so that he can afford to pay for the lifestyle that he has created.
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“I think once he’s done that, if he is still a Member of Parliament and hasn’t been found to have behaved incorrectly by the standards committee – which is a possibility – I think he does have that opportunity.”
The winner of the Tory leadership race will be announced on Monday.
Voting in the ballot closed at 5pm tonight.
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Mr Johnson will resign to the Queen at Balmoral on Tuesday before his successor – either former Chancellor Rishi Sunak or Foreign Secretary Liz Truss – is appointed PM.
Lord Marland’s prediction echoes fears earlier in the week from former Cabinet Minister Rory Stewart, who also warned Mr Johnson could stage a comeback.
He compared the prospect to Donald Trump ’s expected run for the White House in 2024 and Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi, who enjoyed two separate periods as PM.
Mr Stewart said of Mr Johnson: “I am afraid he has an extraordinary ego and he believes that he was badly treated, he doesn’t see the reality which is that he was a terrible Prime Minister and that he lost his job because of deep flaws of character.
“Yes, I fear we are going to end up with a second Berlusconi or a second Trump trying to rock back in again.”
The PM’s hero Winston Churchill returned as PM in 1951 – six years after being ousted by voters when the first general election after the Second World War ushered in Clement Attlee’s Labour Government.