Boris Johnson could be offered a senior cabinet role if Liz Truss becomes the next prime minister, according to education secretary James Cleverly.
Asked during the ITV leadership if she would give Johnson a cabinet job, Truss did not raise her hand.
But Cleverly, who is supporting Truss’ campaign, told Sky News on Monday: “I continue to regard him [Johnson] as an incredible, effective politician.”
While he admitted that “it’s not for me” to make the final decision about whether Johnson should have a senior role in government, Cleverly did pile praise on outgoing prime minister, even though he was ousted from office earlier this month.
Cleverly then added: “Whether he would want to serve after the bruising he’s got at the moment, that might be another matter, but it’s not for me to start dictating to Liz who she should put in her cabinet.”
Host Kay Burley pushed: “But you would welcome him if he did come back?”
He replied: “I would be comfortable, if she [Truss] is.”
Truss said last week that she had wanted Johnson to carry on as prime minister, although she admitted that he made “mistakes” during his leadership.
She was not one of the dozens of Tory MPs who abandoned Johnson earlier this month, unlike her opponent Rishi Sunak, who left his role as chancellor over his premiership. His campaign has been keen to distance the candidate from Johnson’s premiership since it first launched.
In comparison, the current foreign secretary claimed that she was a “loyal person”, and continued to back Johnson.
She told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “I think he did a fantastic job with the 2019 election, winning us a massive majority. He delivered Brexit, he delivered the vaccines.
“Regrettably, we got to a position where he didn’t command the support of our parliamentary party.”
In reference to the controversy surrounding his last six months in office, particularly partygate, Truss replied: “My judgment was that he admitted that he had made a mistake — or several mistakes — over the course of the last year, but the positive side of the balance sheet was extremely positive.”
This fresh speculation over Johnson’s future comes after a new Deltapoll survey revealed that 40% of Tory Party voters still want Johnson to be the next prime minister.