A close ally of Boris Johnson has claimed that he has passed the threshold of 100 MPs’ support needed to allow him to join the battle to succeed Liz Truss as prime minister.
In a message which electrified the contest for the Conservative leadership, Tory MP Sir James Duddridge tweeted: “New – Boris Johnson has more than 100 backers.”
The claim came shortly after the former PM arrived back in the UK from a Caribbean holiday, amid expectations he will soon declare his intention to make a remarkable return to Downing Street less than two months after handing over to Ms Truss.
Public endorsements of Mr Johnson remain well short of the crucial 100 figure, with just 58 Conservative MPs having put their names behind his bid by Saturday afternoon.
And it was notable that Sir James referred to “backers” rather than “nominations”, raising questions over whether Mr Johnson has met the formal requirement to stand.
Leadership rival Rishi Sunak has already comfortably surpassed the threshold for getting his name onto the ballot paper by the deadline of 2pm on Monday.
With Penny Mordaunt – the only contender so far to announce her candidacy – lagging behind on 25 nominations, the Johnson camp’s claim sets the scene for a two-horse race to be decided by Tory members.
While MPs will vote on candidates who clear the nomination hurdle on Monday, their vote on the final two contenders is only indicative, leaving the final decision to an online ballot of members to conclude on Friday.
However, it is thought that an overwhelming victory for one candidate in the indicative vote may persuade the runner-up to pull out.
It is unclear why such a large proportion of Mr Johnson’s backers appear unwilling to go public with their support, with suspicions that they may be keeping open the option of switching to Sunak if he looks like being the runaway winner.
Polling suggests that Mr Johnson may have a strong chance of winning the final members’ ballot even if he finishes second to the former chancellor on MPs’ votes.
It had been thought he may not even announce his candidacy until he was confident of securing 100 nominations, in order to avoid damaging his own reputation as an election winner.
Supporters of Mr Sunak suggested that today’s claim may be an attempt to inject momentum into Johnson’s drive for the leadership by suggesting that he has a large hidden body of MPs behind him.
