Boris Johnson drops biggest hint of political comeback yet as he candidly admits regretting his mistakes as prime minister

Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson last night refused to rule out another bid for Number 10, saying: “I wish things were different, I wish I could still have a chance.”

When asked if he wanted another job at the top job, BoJo cited advice given to him by the late Queen Elizabeth: Only get involved in this sort of thing if you think you could be useful.

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And upon his ouster, he admitted to misjudging the mood of Tory MPs and said: “I thought they wouldn't do something so stupid.

But he insisted he would have won another general election through tax cuts and housing projects.

In a brutal assessment of his successor's disastrous campaign, he admitted: Sometimes I pulled my hair out watching.

He added that he had far too much faith in Rishi Sunak following his capture by the Treasury.

Mr Johnson appeared on The Suns Never Mind the Ballots to lift the lid on his final weeks in office and discuss what the Conservative Party needs to do to regain power.

He insisted there should be no deal with Nigel Farage and that the Conservatives should not try to cannibalize his UK Reform party.

Instead, Mr Johnson said they needed the right leader and they needed to think about voters and their frustrations.

Despite record migration under his watch, Mr Johnson blamed the figures on a post-Covid anomaly and the need to reduce inflation through imported workers.

He even insisted that he could have won this public debate if he had had the chance to fight in the general election.

Admitting that he did not see his political assassination coming, he added: I was sad for Rishi, I really was.

And defending his record when asked if he had any unfinished business, he replied: I look back and I'm very, very proud of the things we've done.

I gave this country national independence, full control of our laws after a very, very long period of four or five decades.

I helped defend the freedom of another European country [Ukraine]. The United Kingdom has really played a decisive role in this regard.

And I protected the people of this country from disease faster than any other European government.

I was tearing my hair out looking at Rishi…but I was sad about what happened.

Boris on the Sunak campaign

I think putting all that together in three years wasn't so bad.

In an outburst during Labour's tenure since the election, he said: Am I frustrated with the way things are currently going under the Labor government and Keir Starmer? Yes, I certainly am.

If I look at what he is doing with huge leaps towards unions, tax increases coming, giving up sovereignty over British possessions like Chagos, I think it is a disaster.

And effectively bring us back into the EU single market as decision-makers…

Despite receiving numerous gifts himself during his time in office, Mr Johnson attacked Labor boss Sir Keir over his love of gifts.

About the Lord Alli scandal, there was rage: thousands and thousands of pounds for suits, clothes and glasses. How can he still wear glasses?

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And the guy who then got the pass for No. 10, I mean give me a break, as they say.

But more importantly, I don't see an agenda for this government.

During his bid for a comeback in 2022, Mr Johnson insisted he had the support of enough MPs to stand in the election, but: “I thought then that the party was still too shaken by it all. And they had endured a lot.

Thousands of pounds on suits and glasses…how can he still wear those glasses

Boris on the gift scandal

Explaining his downfall, he admitted he should have done more to reach out to his MPs, but insisted many of them just wanted him out of their hair.

But Mr Johnson reserved most of his anger for his former chancellor, Mr Sunak, whose dramatic resignation in July 2022 led to his downfall.

He told Never Mind the Ballots: I was sad for Rishi, I really was, because I think he had great, great potential.

When asked why he didn't see it coming, he added: It's like in Jurassic Park, when you're driving and you see something in your rearview mirror…

In a film where you see something at the bottom of the screen and then you forget about it. I kept thinking: is there a problem here that I need to deal with?. And then I would move on.

On Mr Sunak's record, Mr Johnson struck: I don't think we need to increase national insurance contributions to pay for social care.

I think this was a mistake. I don't think I should have listened to the Treasury there.

So my biggest regret, looking back, is that I didn't realize early enough that the Treasury had captured Rishi.

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I thought Rishi was going to be the Nigel Lawson of our time, the great chancellor who cut and simplified taxes. And that never happened.

Asked why he had not spotted the plots against him, he insisted he was too busy and it had been a failure.

He said: When you are Prime Minister you are incredibly busy.

You run the country and you take care of a lot of things. And that is my failure. I assumed people would see him the same way I saw him.

And I thought people would understand that we had a fantastic mandate in 2010 and that I was best placed to deliver it. [the manifesto] and they wouldn't do something so stupid. That's what I assumed.

Mr Johnson, who has just published his memoir Unleashed, added: “I think my problem, one of my many faults, was that I had been conditioned by my career as mayor of London.

We accomplished an awful lot in London, but I did it in a very executive and monarchical way. It wasn't like I had to spend time worrying about my backbenchers.

And when asked if he was aware of backbenchers' unease, he blamed the pandemic and social media abuse for making his MPs nervous about supporting the government.

He continued: Why didn't I know? I couldn't physically see our MPs for a long time and as soon as they got to Westminster they were all locked up and bombarded with stuff on Twitter.

I wasn't really able to commit. And I blame myself for not having compensated enough.

I think people have become very sensitive to certain Twitter storms. I don't blame them.

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