Boris Johnson is back to help the Tories

What could explain Boris Johnson's return to the Conservatives' electoral battle? The former leader, who believes that the Conservatives signed their death warrant by getting rid of him, was not, until now, very inclined to get out of bed (or in this case, from the beach) to help Rishi Sunak, who attended the Boris Regicide drama two years ago.

Relations between the two were never warm and never recovered from that moment.

What has changed, however, is the Farage factor. Those who are charitable might think that now is the time for all conservatives who are not of the far right to come to the party's aid to fight against the invasion of conservative seats by reformists.

His record of self-interest, however, suggests that Johnson, while making it clear that he was not available for general campaign duties, believes that there is some gain in getting involved in posting videos to urgent consonance supporting candidates in danger.

Most notable is Sir Simon Clarke, who holds the vanishing Red Wall seat of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, and a close ally of the Johnson cabinet which has since attempted to unseat Sunak.

This boat has sailed. Conservative MPs now accept that they will go down with the Rishi ship or, in these final days of campaigning, somehow emerge from disaster if enough of Farage's protesting voters can be persuaded that This is a poison pill that will consolidate the Labor Party. power on a large scale.

This dynamic sealed the deal on Johnson's return to the Conservative fold. Sunak said yesterday he welcomed the return of his old rivals to the fray, adding: “I know it will make a difference, and confirming it has been coordinated by the campaign.

Both messages are important: Johnson must have his contribution recognised, and given the poor state of the Tory campaign, Sunak could hardly turn down the offer of Britain's best-known Tory face telling people to vote for the party. And, despite everything, Johnson is still in the box office, unlike most high-ranking conservatives.

But the Prime Minister also wants to emphasize that this is not just happening on Boris's terms, but is being managed by the campaign. In this I simply read that Isaac Levido, the Sunaks' chief strategist, who has a good relationship with Johnson (both benefited in their earlier careers from training from Lynton Crosby on how to target seats and create message discipline), is behind all of this.

It appears, however, that Johnson is prepared to do more in the latest round of hostilities, including signing emails to voters in areas where the Reform Party is growing, suggesting some degree of integration.

An interesting question is why the former prime minister agreed to be brought back to some party discipline so late in the process. I suspect the answer lies partly in the irresistible challenge posed by the Reformers and what is at stake in the wake of the Conservatives' defeat.

Farage irritates Johnson for the reason many performative people annoy each other: they block each other's light. Farage pointed out that Boris was not an MP in a eulogy that slyly underlined that Johnson's political peak may well be behind him.

And yes, Johnson often looks tired and a little drained. It doesn't suit him to sit at home writing and making videos in the room, says a longtime friend. He draws his energy from the presence of other people.

He enjoys well-paid speaking tours in the United States, but even there he competes with Farage, who is a close friend of Donald Trump, with much better access to the new generation of fashionable right-wing conservatives.

This incarnation of Johnson feels like a stopgap, not an end state. For this reason, the return is as tactical as it is spontaneous. The opinion of centrists keen to avoid demolition, and all the MPs who remain the backbone of the party, will be much higher if he put his shoulder to the wheel at a most difficult time. time. And given that he will need to return to Parliament for a future role, he will also need help to do so via a by-election.

It is also worth noting that Boris has also moved to the right during his protean political career, going from liberal on immigration to instigator of the Rwanda deportation plan. Protesting against the awakening in its afterlife as a political voice in Daily Mail and TikTok star, his style has moved closer to Farage's bluff boundary lines, although Farage's core politics descend from the (Enoch) Powellite tradition in a way that Johnson does not.

But there is also a competition to define the post-Brexit debate, and the Farage factor could bring out Johnson's competitive appetite. I also don't rule out that Johnson, like many extroverts, also has thin skin and a desire to restore a legacy that he believes was destroyed in the wake of the Partygate scandal and his sullen resignation as congressman .

One of my most vivid memories of the big kid is him dancing to Human Leagues Dont You Want Me at a mutual friends' birthday party. It's far too late to realize that you think you've changed your mind, might just be the words that stuck in his head.

The other reason an ousted leader comes back to help, of course, is so their colleagues will remember how they missed him.

Anne McElvoy is the host of Politico's Power Play podcast