Boris Johnson
(Picture: PA Wire)A Tory peer has predicted Boris Johnson will return to Number 10 this year - just as Rishi Sunak prepares to set out his vision for Britain in his first major speech since becoming Prime Minister.
Lord Stephen Greenhalgh - a close ally of Mr Johnson and a former Deputy Mayor for London - compared the former Prime Minister to Harold Wilson who had two separate stints as PM, once between 1964 and 1970 and again between 1974 and 1976.
Speaking on BBC Newsnight on Tuesday, Lord Greenhalgh said that while Mr Johnson’s comeback was not 100 per cent certain it was “likely”. Referring to the classical reference made by Mr Johnson during his departure speech in Downing Street in September, the peer added: “I’m sure Cincinattus will return to No10 at some point this year.”
Historians say the Roman statesman Cincinnatus returned to power as a dictator after spending time on his farm.
Talk of a return for Mr Johnson comes as Mr Sunak was set to make his first major intervention of the new year in a speech in London.
With the NHS in crisis and the country facing a wave of strikes and a looming recession, Mr Sunak faces a major battle to turn around the Conservative party’s fortunes before the general election, expected next year.
Some political commentators believe another set of bad results for the Tories in this May’s local elections could open the door for a return for Mr Johnson, who is still seen by his closest supporters as an election winner after his 2019 general election triumph and two terms as London Mayor.
Mr Johnson was forced from office after he lost the confidence of Conservative MPs last summer following a series of sleaze scandals and the partygate affair.
The former PM is still facing an investigation by the Commons Privileges Committee into whether he misled Parliament over partygate.
Despite the challenges facing Mr Johnson, Lord Greenhalgh insisted: “I was with Boris in City Hall in the second term and I think he was more successful in the second term than the first.
“I was asked by someone to read a [Harold] Wilson biography by [Labour MP] Nick Thomas Symonds and that was all about a Prime Minister who comes back in two distinct terms and Boris will be the same with a gap.
“So I think it is likely, not 100 per cent certain but there’s a strong probability he will return.”
Lord Greenhalgh was caught up in a controversy in 2012 when he was accused of patting a female worker’s bottom. He has always denied the claims but apologised over the distress the incident caused.
In his keynote speech on Wednesday, Mr Sunak will attempt to set out his plans for tackling the mounting problems facing the UK.
But he has already faced criticism from Labour for using the address to highlight his plan to ensure all pupils in England study some form of maths until aged 18 in his first speech of 2023.
The PM will say that with the “right plan”, he sees “no reason” why “we cannot rival the best education systems in the world”.
He is expected to say: “This is personal for me. Every opportunity I’ve had in life began with the education I was so fortunate to receive.
“And it’s the single most important reason why I came into politics: to give every child the highest possible standard of education.
“Thanks to the reforms we’ve introduced since 2010, and the hard work of so many excellent teachers, we’ve made incredible progress.
“With the right plan - the right commitment to excellence - I see no reason why we cannot rival the best education systems in the world”.
But a Labour source accused the Prime Minister of having nothing to offer the country “except double maths”. The source added: “As the health service falls to pieces after 12 years of Tory rule, criminals terrorise the streets and working people worry how their wages will last the month, the country is entitled to ask: is this it?”
