Backlash against Boris Johnson as MPs warn return would sink Tories — follow latest

Appointing Boris Johnson as Conservative leader would catapult the party “straight back into the pickle we were in when he was in office”, a Conservative MP has said.

Crispin Blunt, who is backing Rishi Sunak, dismissed the former prime minister’s chances for a return to No 10 as he said Johnson’s flaws had been “brutally exposed”.

Backers think Johnson is the party’s “best electoral asset” to avoid a wipeout at the next general election.

Truss will become Britain’s shortest-serving prime minister

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER JACK HILL

The fault lines in the Tory party have been ripped back open by the leadership race prompted by Liz Truss’s resignation. There are reports that allies of Johnson and Sunak have been in contact to try to reconcile, but it is likely Sunak’s campaign will frame Johnson as the wrong man