Rival Tory candidates warned off Henley ‘as Boris expected stand there’

Senior Tory MP warns against driving Boris out of party

Speculation is mounting in the Conservative Party that Boris Johnson could already be preparing his comeback after prospective candidates claimed they had been warn off applying for Henley.

The Oxfordshire safe Conservative seats was represented by the former Prime Minister between 1999 and 2008 when he quit to become London Mayor.

Now it is being claimed he is strongly considering making his Parliamentary comeback there after this week dramatically quitting as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in London.

Mr Johnson recently bought a house in the Cotswolds and one Tory MP noted he still has a lot of supporters in his former seat, despite Partygate and the civil war raging around him and Rishi Sunak.

The MP said: “There is a very large section of the party in Henley that still love Boris.

“They really like their big personality MPs there like him and Hezza (Michael Heseltine).”

There has been speculation that Mr Johnson had been considering a return to his former seat since John Howell, the current Conservative MP, announced he was stepping down at the next election.

That expectation has been heightened by private warnings to Tories on the candidates list not to waste their time applying for the safe seat.

One prospective candidate said: “I was doing my paperwork and preparation on a list of seats I was panning on applying for, including Henley.

“I sent it for some advice to [a Tory grandee] and he came back quickly say ‘don’t bother with Henley, Boris is going there.'”

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A second prospective candidate said: “Absolutely no point trying for Henley. Everyone knows it is Boris’ if he wants it.”

Boris Johnson’s spokesman has issued no comment on the speculation.

However, Tory MPs are questioning whether Rishi Sunak might block Mr Johnson from standing again given the public acrimony between them which flared up over his resignation honours list last week.

It has been noted questions about whether he would stand in Mid-Bedfordshire in a by-election caused by Nadine Dorries have allready brought an answer that the candidate would need to be signed off by the Prime Minister.

One Tory MP said: “It will really depend how far Rishi Sunak wants to push this fallout between them.”

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Mr Johnson announced his resignation as an MP on Friday after receiving the draft report from the Privileges Committee into whether he deliberately misled Parliament.

The official publication of the report was meant to be tomorrow but has now been delayed.

However, Mr Johnson branded it “a kangaroo court” and revealed they intended to suspend him for more than 10 days potentially triggering a recall by-election.

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