Damian Reilly Damian Reilly

Why the Tories must bring back Boris

Boris Johnson was ousted as Tory leader in 2022 (Getty images)

The British people adore Boris Johnson. That is unarguable. It’s why he doesn’t lose elections. It is therefore very funny – the way idiocy so often is – that the Conservative party even in this, its moment of greatest existential crisis, is not right now prostrating itself before the great man to beg for his return.

Boris used his farewell speech in Downing Street to liken himself to the ancient Roman statesman Cincinnatus

‘We are profoundly sorry that we thought we knew better than you, and accept that all evidence since we deposed you has proved us entirely and unforgivably wrong,’ it should be snivelling. ‘Please come back and save us, like you did when, not six years ago against all odds, you delivered the biggest parliamentary majority we’ve had since 1987.’

But no. Instead, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch – even after last week presiding over the loss of 674 Conservative council seats and control of 16 local authorities – continues to speak vaguely about the policies she will one day, presumably when she thinks we can handle them, set before the idiot voters.

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