LONDON (AFP) – Conservative rivals Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak held face-to-face talks late Saturday, reports said, as the feuding pair who once headed Britain’s government were poised to battle for the leadership of their fractured ruling party.
Former prime minister Johnson, who returned from a Caribbean holiday earlier in the day aiming to launch an audacious political comeback just weeks after leaving office, met ex-finance minister Sunak to discuss the race, the BBC and others reported.
Both are yet to declare they will run to replace outgoing leader Liz Truss, who announced on Thursday she would stand down – just 44 tempestuous days into her tenure.
It is thought to be their first in-person discussions in months, following a spectacular falling out after Sunak’s July resignation helped trigger the government mutiny that ultimately prompted
Johnson’s ousting. Few details have emerged about what The Sun dubbed a ‘secret summit’ and the Sunday Times said was ongoing at close to 10pm. The Sunday Telegraph reported they were set to discuss ‘agreeing to a joint ticket’ to avoid a Tory “civil war”.
That implausible scenario comes as Sunak races ahead in the count of conservative MP nominations to be the next leader, with the 42-year-old easily securing the 100 minimum threshold set by the party to contest the United Kingdom’s top job.
He has the public backing of 128 Tory lawmakers, compared to Johnson’s 53 and 23 for cabinet member Penny Mordaunt, who was the first to formally declare on Friday.
Johnson cut short a luxury stay in the Dominican Republic to join the seemingly three-way tussle, with allies saying he was “up for it”.
The divisive 58-year-old Brexit architect only relinquished power in early September, two months after announcing his resignation over a slew of scandals.
