Rory Stewart also likened the outgoing prime minister to Silvio Berlusconi, who is planning a return to Italy despite being – like Mr Johnson – beset by multiple scandals. “I’m afraid he has an extraordinary ego and he thinks he’s been treated badly,” the former international development secretary said of Mr Johnson. “He doesn’t see the reality, which is that he was a terrible prime minister and that he lost his job because of deep character flaws. “Yes, I fear we will end up with a second Berlusconi or a second Trump trying to come back again,” Stewart told BBC Radio 4. Polls show many Conservative supporters who wanted Johnson to quit at the height of the Partygate and Chris Pincher scandals are now regretting his departure next week. Ms Truss is almost certain to be his successor – but she faces an extraordinary cocktail of crises that are likely to force her to abandon many of the campaign pledges that would win her the prize. Many Conservatives fear he will not be able to hold together the Tory coalition that won the 2019 election in the party’s southern heartlands and red wall gains in the north and half. An Opinium survey found that at least 63 per cent of Tories already prefer Mr Johnson to Mrs Truss in a head-selection. Only 22% supported her. This “seller’s remorse” threatens to be a major headache for the new leader – especially if, as is rumoured, Mr Johnson turns up at the party conference in October and receives a hero’s welcome. David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary, has also predicted a Johnson comeback attempt if storm clouds gather ahead of the 2024 general election. “We know that he felt that his removal was the consequence of MPs behaving like a herd of senseless sparrows unduly panicked into a riot,” he said. “We know that people around him harbored fantasies about his immediate reinstatement from a membership drive and that he did little to dissuade them.” One stumbling block is the privilege committee inquiry into whether Mr Johnson lied to parliament about the No 10 parties, but his allies are already trying to quash that. Mr Stewart lost the Tory whip for defying Johnson in trying to block a no-deal Brexit in 2019 and quit the party the following month. He now co-hosts a political podcast with former Labor spin doctor Alastair Campbell and has been appointed chairman of international charity GiveDirectly.
