Tory MPs must “bring back Boris Johnson or die”, Nadine Dorries has warned.
The former culture secretary - an outspoken supporter of the ex-PM - said her party was “heading into the long, cold and brutal wasteland of thankless opposition” under Rishi Sunak.
Her comments, in an article for the Mail on Sunday, are further evidence of Johnson’s supporters’ determination to undermine the current prime minister.
Dorries, who has been nominated for a peerage in Johnson’s resignation honours list, said the former PM was “the most impactful, charismatic, progressive and productive leader the Conservative Party has known since the days of Margaret Thatcher”.
“The future of Conservative MPs rests in their own hands, and they have a simple question to ask themselves: do they want to remain as MPs or not?,” she said.
“It is an undeniable fact that with Boris at the helm, more would return to Westminster following a general election than with any other individual leading the party. He is still our political rock star out on the streets.
“The prime minister who got every single big decision right, from personally driving the vaccine programme to arming the people of Ukraine and standing up to Vladimir Putin.
“With Rishi in No 10, we are heading into the long, cold and brutal wasteland of thankless opposition.
“For the Conservatives, it’s bring back Boris or die because the first task of any Labour government would be to ensure that there’ll never be a majority Conservative government ever again.”
Dorries’s broadside came just days after she accused Sunak of destroying Johnson’s legacy.
She said Johnson policies like levelling up and social care reform had been “dumped” by Sunak, while the online safety bill she piloted has been “watered down”.
She also took aim at Sunak’s plan to make pupils learn maths until they are 18, insisting no one had voted for the policy and there weren’t enough teachers to deliver it.
Johnson quit as prime minister last September in the wake of the partygate and Pinchergate scandals.
He tried to get his old job back just weeks later following the resignation of his successor, Liz Truss.
But despite managing to get the support of more than 100 Tory MPs - the minimum requirement to get on the final leadership ballot - Johnson decided to bow out of the contest at the last minute.