Tory MPs who want Boris Johnson back should be careful what they wish for

If Johnson reaches the shortlist of two names for an online ballot of party members, he will probably win, writes Andrew Grice

Johnson allies are confident he can secure the necessary nominations by 100 Tory MPs by Monday (AP)

“I never dreamed she would be so bad at it,” one cabinet minister who joined the Gadarene rush to support Liz Truss for the Tory leadership told me ruefully.

Nor did I. I thought Truss, the rebel never without a cause, would temper her revolutionary zeal when she got to Downing Street. Instead, she opted for all or nothing, and quickly ended up with nothing. She launched an experiment on the British people with the theories her favoured right-wing libertarian think tanks had peddled for years, with little expectation they would ever be introduced in one go. Even they were amazed when Truss did so.

“We are the softies now,” one prominent think tanker whispered after the fantasy politics of last month’s mini-Budget collided with reality.