Britain’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson made a surprise last minute entry onto the campaign scene in the final leg before the UK votes on the 4th of July. He walked to the lectern among supporters’ shouting ‘Boris, Boris’. “We’re here because we love our country and whatever, whatever our differences, whatever our differences, they are utterly trivial by comparison with the disaster we may face if these so-called opinion polls are right,” he told the crowd. Opinion polls have predicted a drubbing for the Conservative Party led by Rishi Sunak.
Boris Johnson joined the campaign push after a call from Rishi Sunak, someone who, a few years ago, was instrumental in his exit as Prime Minister. Boris Johnson had won a big majority in the last elections in 2019 but was forced out in 2022 by a mutiny that Rishi Sunak had helped start.
In a speech listing many of his own achievements, Johnson gave little personal endorsement to Sunak but focused on what he said were the dangers of the opposition Labour Party winning power. “Five years ago you helped to send Jeremy Corbyn and his then disciple Keir Starmer into orbit where they belong. And we got Brexit done. We restored democracy. We restored democracy to our country,” Boris Johnson said. “Yet Labour are so cocky that they’re barely there, barely can, they’re so complacent, they’re so smug. They’re barely concealing their agenda anymore. And we can see what it is. Racking up taxes on pensions, on property, persecuting private enterprise, attacking private education and private health care.”
Boris Johnson has been on the sidelines of this election campaign till now. He has personally endorsed some individual candidates but has not campaigned for the party before this.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who walked in after Boris Johnson urged supporters to stay united.
“Boris is right to say now is the time for all conservatives to come together to deny Labor that supermajority that Keir Starmer craves.
The Tories have their backs to the wall going into this election. The Conservatives have been in power for 14 years. The latest forecast by Survation shows that Labour Party’s Keir Starmer is projected to win 484 of the 650 seats in parliament. That’s a lot higher than Tony Blair’s 418 seats the party got during his landslide win in 1997. Rishi Sunak-led Conservatives, on the other hand are predicted to win just 64 seats, which would be the lowest since the party was founded in 1834. Other polls also show that Labour is poised for a comfortable win.
