Tories deploy Boris Johnson to try to rejuvenate election campaign

Rishi Sunak has welcomed Boris Johnson’s long-distance intervention in the general election campaign as a new opinion poll suggested the Conservatives could be heading for their worst-ever defeat.

The former prime minister has recorded endorsement videos for some Tory candidates in the latest attempt by party chiefs to rejuvenate a Conservative campaign that has failed to dent Labour’s 20-point polling lead.

Johnson has also contributed to direct mailshots and candidate endorsements in certain seats, but he is travelling and his allies said he was not expected to personally feature in the campaign.

One minister running for re-election warned the Tory campaign risked falling into a “death spiral”.

Sunak’s personal ratings are at record lows, according to pollster YouGov, and the prime minister said Johnson’s interventions, orchestrated by Tory campaign headquarters, were welcome.

“It’s great Boris is supporting the Conservative party,” he said. “He’s endorsed many candidates in videos and letters which have been co-ordinated by the campaign, and I know that will make a difference.”

Johnson, who has not appeared on the campaign trail in person and has been on holiday in Sardinia, is urging people not to support Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Polling data indicates the former premier retains an appeal with swing Tory voters that Sunak does not possess: YouGov gives the current prime minister a net favourability rating of -51.

Fear of an “extinction-level” wipeout at the election is fuelling speculation about whether Johnson could be the best choice to improve the Tories’ appeal after polling day, in spite of the fact he is seen as a toxic figure by many voters, particularly for his roles in Brexit and the Partygate scandal.

“This could be his ‘Cincinnatus back from the plough’ moment,” said one Tory official, citing Johnson’s reference in his farewell speech as prime minister outside Number 10 to the Roman statesman who departed Rome for a bucolic existence, only to be called back later to lead.

In May’s local elections, Tory mayoral candidates Andy Street in the West Midlands and Lord Ben Houchen in the Tees Valley welcomed endorsements from Johnson, while keeping their distance from Sunak.

Sunak’s comments came as a MRP constituency-level poll by Ipsos suggested the Tories were heading for their worst election defeat, and could win just 115 seats to Labour’s 453. It would give Sir Keir Starmer’s party a 256-seat majority in the House of Commons.

Meanwhile, Sunak’s promise to cut taxes and make Britain a better place for business suffered a setback on Tuesday when billionaire Manchester United co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe said Britons were “ready for change”.

Ratcliffe, founder of the petrochemicals company Ineos and one of Britain’s richest people, said the country was tired of the Conservatives. “They’ve had enough,” he told Bloomberg TV.

Ratcliffe, who cited a fear of leftwing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as a reason for his relocation to Monaco in 2018, added: “I’ve met Keir Starmer a couple times. I like Keir. I think he’ll do a very sensible job.”

John Caudwell, the billionaire founder of mobile phone retailer Phones4U, also backed Starmer.

Caudwell, who gave £500,000 to the Conservatives under Boris Johnson in 2019, said on Tuesday he would vote Labour.

“I’ve been increasingly critical of Tory failures since [2019], particularly over Rishi’s mismanagement of the economy during Covid, Boris’ lowering of ethical standards — and, of course, associated with that the accusation that Tory cronies benefited improperly regarding Covid PPE — and then the Liz Truss debacle,” he said in a statement.

“Over the last two years especially, I have been amazed by how Keir Starmer has transformed the Labour party and brought it back from that Corbyn brink.”

The interventions by business people came on another awkward day of campaigning for Sunak, who was mocked on social media after a flock of sheep in north Devon ran away from him as he tried to feed them.

The prime minister, accompanied by foreign secretary Lord David Cameron, appeared to sow panic among the sheep, prompting Labour to compare the animals to unruly Tory MPs.

Sunak was travelling in Devon — an area targeted by the Liberal Democrats and Labour — and visited West Devon, a seat with a 25,000 Tory majority, in a sign of his concern about a possible collapse in the Conservative vote.

Some Tory candidates warn there is a danger of worsening the defeat by presenting it as a certainty; defence secretary Grant Shapps has in recent days warned Starmer could win a “supermajority”, while Cameron on Tuesday urged voters to back Conservatives in order to “hold Labour to account” in government.

“These things become a self-fulfilling prophecy,” said one former Tory minister seeking re-election. “People are succumbing to a terrible malaise. We need to break out of this death spiral and make sure our activists are invigorated.”

While the Conservatives’ controversial messaging is aimed at squeezing the Reform and Lib Dem votes, sceptics warn it risks achieving the opposite.

Lee Cain, former Downing Street director of communications under Johnson who also worked on the Vote Leave campaign ahead of the Brexit referendum, said on X: “Telling your voters they are on the losing team will usually depress turnout on your *own* side.”

Criticism of the Tory campaign is intensifying from within the party’s own ranks. One Tory official lamented that a BBC One Question Time event on Thursday featuring party leaders would be eclipsed by England playing in the Euros earlier that evening.

The BBC event means the prime minister can no longer attend the Conservatives’ summer party — and major fundraiser — at the Hurlingham club, an elite sports and social club in west London, with scores of ministers, MPs, apparatchiks and donors.