Boris Johnson leave home earlier this week after an unplanned announcement that he would run for leader if Theresa May stepped down LUKE DRAY / GETTY IMAGESWhile Theresa May’s office was barricaded firmly shut this week, elsewhere in parliament yesterday Boris Johnson was throwing his door open. The former foreign secretary spent the days in his oak-panelled office in Portcullis House in back-to-back, one-to-one meetings with Tory MPs, trying to persuade them that he should be their next leader. Surrounded by political books offering their own lessons from history, and overlooked by a bust of Pericles, Mr Johnson lays out his simple pitch: only he can beat both Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage. For Conservative MPs more worried about their own futures than the country’s, it is a powerful argument. No wonder the tide of bitter opposition to Mr Johnson among those who know him best seems to be turning.

Source: The Times May 24, 2019 09:23 UTC