A group of almost 2,000 Conservative members have written to party chairman to demand they are given the option of voting for Boris Johnson in the leadership ballot.
The first stage of the Tory leadership contest is nearing its conclusion, with Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Penny Mordaunt vying to become the final two candidates making their case to members, who will elect the next PM.
However, more than 1,800 members loyal to the outgoing PM are said to have added their signature to a petition asking party officials to add Mr Johnson’s names as a “third option”.
The petition, first reported by The Telegraph, was organised by Tory donor Lord Cruddas and former Tory MEP David Campbell-Bannerman.
The signatories all signed up to the statement: “I demand Boris Johnson is added to the ballot as an option for the members to vote upon in the forthcoming election.”
Lord Cruddas told the newspaper that a significant part of the membership still wants the option of voting for the leader who triumphed at the 2019 general election.
“We think it is only fair because Boris was the members choice back in 2019 and he has been constructively removed by the Parliamentary Party without referral to the membership,” he said.
The senior Tory donor added: “By adding Boris to the final ballot to make it a three-horse race means that the winner will have the backing of the membership.
“There will be no ambiguity around the result and the final choice of leader will have integrity,” he said.
Surveys suggest Mr Johnson – who has made clear he will stand down as PM when a new leader is elected in early September – saw his popularity among members plummet during 2022.
The PM has remained at the bottom of ConservativeHome’s cabinet league table, an online survey of the Tory grassroots, for several months.
Votes are currently being counted to decide the next Tory leadership candidate to be eliminated from the race, which has become a three-way battle to face Mr Sunak in the run-off.
With the former chancellor comfortably ahead among MPs, Ms Mordaunt, Ms Truss and Kemi Badenoch remain in the hunt for the second place on the ballot.
But Ms Badenoch would appear to be the most vulnerable candidate after finishing fourth in the previous round of voting.
Tom Tugendhat, eliminated at the last round, turned up to vote along with a group of his allies, but refused to say which who he was backing.
But a Mordaunt campaign insider said: “Don’t forget that lots of Tom’s backers are good friends of Penny and her One Nation endorsers.”
