The Wall Street Journal reports Boris Johnson’s Potential Return Shakes Up Race for U.K. Prime Minister
Dozens of Tory lawmakers publicly backed Mr. Johnson on Friday, as candidates vied to replace Prime Minister Liz Truss, who stepped down after 45 days on the job when her proposed policy of large tax cuts and spending increases sent markets reeling.
In a television interview on Friday, Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said he was leaning toward supporting Mr. Johnson, and two other current cabinet ministers said they would back the former party leader.
Mr. Johnson, 58, hasn’t publicly stated whether he is running and his aides declined to comment. But several allies said he would enter the race if he could gather the 100 nominations from among the Conservative Party’s 357 lawmakers required to stand for the role.
Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is considered the leading contender to succeed Ms. Truss. Oddsmakers give Mr. Sunak a 53% chance of winning. Mr. Sunak, who is already leading the pack with several dozen public endorsements, hasn’t yet declared that he is standing. Mr. Johnson has a 42% chance of victory, according to oddsmakers. Penny Mordaunt, a cabinet minister who Friday said she is running, has a 10% chance.
A survey released Thursday by People Polling found that 38% of Conservative voters want Mr. Johnson to lead the party compared with 20% for Mr. Sunak, who served as Mr. Johnson’s Treasury chief before resigning and setting the stage for Mr. Johnson’s ouster.
The possible return of Mr. Johnson elicited a mixed reaction from Conservative lawmakers. Several, even some who don’t support him, privately said Mr. Johnson could make a comeback if he succeeds in uniting the euroskeptic right wing of the party around him.
“He is the ultimate in the emergency break-glass candidate,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. “Anything could happen.”
Boris Johnson’s Final Words to UK ‘Mission Accomplished, Hasta La Vista, Baby’
Please recall Boris Johnson’s Final Words to UK ‘Mission Accomplished, Hasta La Vista, Baby’
“Hasta la vista, baby” is a catchphrase associated with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s title character from the 1991 science fiction action film Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The term “Hasta la vista”, literally “Until the view”, is a Spanish farewell that can generally be understood as meaning “Until the (next) time we see each other” or “See you later” or “Goodbye”.
The phrase became a famous catchphrase when it was used in the 1991 film Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The phrase is featured in an exchange between the film’s characters John Connor (Edward Furlong) and The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), where the former teaches the latter the use of slang:
John Connor: No, no, no, no. You gotta listen to the way people talk. You don’t say “affirmative” or some shit like that. You say “no problemo”. And if someone comes up to you with an attitude, you say “eat me”. And if you want to shine them on, it’s “hasta la vista, baby”.
T-800: Hasta la vista, baby.
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How the Next PM is Selected
- Only the Tory MPs and party members have a say.
- Any Tory MP can throw his or her name into the hat.
- Boris Johnson is still an MP, thus eligible.
- In multiple rounds of voting, the MPs weed out candidates one by one until there are just two left.
- In each round of MP voting, the person with the least votes is dropped.
- After the MPs shorten the list to the final two, all the party members votes.
If Johnson can make it to the final two where the party members decide, he might be back.
I suspect ministers will collaborate against Johnson, but we will soon find out.
Hasta la vista, baby.
This post originated at MishTalk.Com.
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