Boris Johnson’s hopes of a political comeback have been dealt a major blow by the Tory candidate in one of his former seats.
Supporters of the former prime minister are reportedly plotting to have him re-installed at the top of the Tory Party.
According to the Daily Telegraph, they want Johnson to become MP for Henley - the constituency he represented between 2001 and 2008 - as a first step towards becoming Conservative leader again.
But Caroline Newton, who was recently chosen to fight the seat for the Tories, today appeared to torpedo that plan by insisting she will not make way for the former PM.
Asked on LBC whether she would consider standing down to let Johnson take her place, she said: “I’d say absolutely not. Listen, the idea that a woman would step aside for a man to take a job that he just fancies is absurd. And it’s certainly not something I’m going to do.
“Look, I’ve been representing communities here as a candidate, as a councillor, for a decade. I’ve been an activist here knocking on doors for a decade. There’s absolutely no question in my mind that I am a really great candidate here and that I’m the candidate that is going to take the party to the next election here.
“So no, if he came to me with that, the answer would be, thank you for the thought, but no thank you.”
Johnson was forced out of Downing Street in 2022 after he was hit by a wave of ministerial resignations.
He then stood down as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip last June, claiming he was the victim of a “kangaroo court” over a Commons investigation into the partygate scandal.
The privileges committee found that Johnson had deliberately misled parliament when allegations first emerged that lockdown rules had been broken in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.
If he had not pre-empted the report by resigning, he would have faced a lengthy 90-day suspension from parliament.