"Boris thanked me for my 'Boris on the ballot' campaign. He said he was enjoying following it and he wished me well."
Boris Johnson doesn’t want to resign and wishes he could remain prime minister, according to Tory peer Lord Cruddas.
The former Tory party treasurer said Mr Johnson told him how he felt during lunch at Chequers on Friday. It comes as former Tory leader William Hague warned that Johnson will be a “permanent nightmare” for the new PM, whoever it is. He said: “Boris lives his life as a performance, and he will want the next act to fill every seat in the theatre of British political life.”
Cruddas is currently running a campaign to have Johnson’s name added on the ballot for the Tory leadership election, with thousands of Tory members clogging up CCHQ phone lines and signing a petition demanding they be allowed to vote for Johnson, despite his record of lies, law breaking and scandal hit premiership.
Cruddas told the Telegraph: “There was no ambiguity in Boris’s views. He definitely does not want to resign. He wants to carry on and he believes that, with the membership behind him, he can.”
The peer added: “Boris thanked me for my ‘Boris on the ballot’ campaign. He said he was enjoying following it and he wished me well. He said he could understand the membership’s anger at what had happened.
“He said that he wished that he could carry on as Prime Minister. He said he does not want to resign.”
Downing Street has responded to the latest rumours about Johnson’s desire to carry on, insisting that he will leave when the new Tory leader is chosen in September.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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