Is Boris Johnson on a ‘chicken run’ to the safe Tory seat of Henley?

His great hero Churchill represented five seats for two parties, as Sean O’Grady explains

Like Lazarus, Johnson has a habit of remarkable recoveries (PA)

John Howell, the Conservative MP for Henley, is to stand down at the next election. He has been the local member since his predecessor resigned after winning the 2008 race to be elected mayor of London. Despite protestations from the parties involved, there has been speculation about a Johnson return.

Is Boris Johnson on the chicken run?

So some say. Johnson has reportedly used some of his vast earnings as a former PM to bag himself a mansion in Oxfordshire, and he and his wife Carrie have been investigating suitable schools in the area for their young children. Henley, in a corner of the county just across the border from Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, is close enough to London but opens up the possibility of a comfortable county-set lifestyle vaguely near the Cotswolds.