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Boris Johnson has proven leadership abilities and won an 80-seat majority for the Tory party.
I was his Parliamentary Private Secretary and stayed with him right until the end.
It was a mistake to force him out but now is the time to bring him back.
He is the only one who can unite the party after the turbulent last few weeks and I trust him to right the ship.
Boris would be able to form a government that draws on all the talents the party has to steer us through the difficult times ahead.
He has always remained hugely popular with the party’s grassroots and with large parts of the country.
There will always be socialists and angry Twitter mobs who rail against him but he is an election winner, twice in London as well as nationally.
My constituents regularly tell me they want Boris back and he still has a mandate from the country.
Boris got Brexit done despite the best attempts of Remainers to ignore the results of the referendum.
He shepherded this country through the darkest times of Covid despite his own brush with death.
In Ukraine, Boris is a hero for leading the West’s response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
He has the star quality and inspirational leadership the country needs during the challenging months ahead.
It’s time to Bring Back Boris.
Sam Lister, Political Editor
Liz Truss bowed to the inevitable yesterday after Conservative MPs said the party could not take any more humiliation.
Undignified scuffles in the Commons voting lobbies involving senior members of the government, u-turns on u-turns, and resignations that were rescinded late at night left Tories in despair.
Just 44 days after entering Downing Street with an uplifting promise to drive economic growth and give people more control over their own lives, Ms Truss returned to the lectern to admit defeat.
Party chiefs are desperate to avoid deepening the divisions with another bitter drawn out contest so have decided it will all be over by next Friday at the latest.
But the bar for entry has been set so high that some Tories feel it is a stitch up designed in favour of Rishi Sunak, who was the favourite among MPs last time round but failed to win over the membership.
Rumours were swirling last night of votes being lent to Penny Mordaunt, even though she secured more than 100 votes last time, to make sure she is definitely on the list.
Cynics say that would give the members an illusion of having a say because they would be able to vote for their preferred candidate.
But the phoney contest would infuriate many members who never wanted Boris Johnson to leave and believe he is the only option to take over from Ms Truss.
The former PM has a mandate from the country after winning an 80 seat majority in 2019 and polling shows he is the most popular with the Tory grassroots.
But to make it on to Monday’s list, Mr Johnson and his allies must be ruthlessly disciplined.
Some of his former supporters are unwilling to support him after the partygate debacle and feel his return would be too soon.
Others will need persuasion that this time round he would run a tight ship.
Allies in the party were quick out of the blocks to publicly declare their support, which gives him the momentum needed to persuade the right of the party that he is the only candidate who can stop Mr Sunak becoming Prime Minister.
That should focus minds over the next 48 hours as MPs decide who to choose.
One major barrier to a return, however, is the investigation he faces over whether he misled MPs over partygate.
The looming probe could cast doubt in the minds of any waverers.
But insiders reflected that minor moral failings were preferable to huge economic ones and there was now a nostalgia for a Prime Minister who led the country through a pandemic and showed true leadership over the invasion of Ukraine.
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