By Paul Sandle and Kate Holton

LONDON (Reuters) -Boris Johnson was combating on Sunday to get sufficient help to make a shock return as Britain’s prime minister after outstanding figures on the right-wing of the Conservative Occasion coalesced across the man as soon as accused of betraying him, Rishi Sunak.

Johnson was prime minister from 2019 to 2022 till he was pressured to resign over a string of scandals. One-time backers at the moment are urging him to remain out of the race to exchange his successor Liz Truss, who solely lasted six weeks in workplace.

Johnson remains to be going through an investigation into whether or not he misled parliament when he was final in energy, and several other former backers have stated that will assure a return to the fixed state of drama that accompanied his earlier premiership.

“This is not the time for Boris’s type,” Steve Baker, an influential lawmaker on the fitting of the occasion, instructed Sky Information. “I am afraid the difficulty is due to the privileges vote, Boris can be a assured catastrophe.”

Britain has been thrust right into a recent political disaster after Truss was pressured to face down over an financial coverage that sparked turmoil in monetary markets, driving up borrowing prices and mortgage charges at a time of surging power and meals payments.

That has opened the best way for a brand new chief, with Sunak, the previous finance minister, Johnson and former defence minister Penny Mordaunt battling to get the help of 100 lawmakers to enter a poll on Monday to turn into the subsequent prime minister.

The prospect of one other Johnson premiership is a polarising difficulty for a lot of within the Conservative Occasion, which is deeply divided after seeing off 4 prime ministers in six years.

For some Conservative lawmakers, Johnson is a vote-winner, capable of attraction throughout the nation along with his celeb picture and model of energetic optimism. For others he’s a poisonous determine who would battle to unite the occasion and so may undermine efforts to construct a secure management to calm rattled monetary markets.

DEEPLY UNPOPULAR

Sunak is nicely forward within the race to safe lawmaker backing, with the BBC placing his help at 129 declarations, and Johnson on 53.

He first got here to nationwide consideration when, aged 39, he grew to become finance minister beneath Johnson simply because the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Britain, creating a furlough scheme to help thousands and thousands of individuals via a number of lockdowns.

He stays deeply unpopular with massive components of the occasion membership, nonetheless, after he give up Johnson’s authorities in July, serving to to set off a insurrection that introduced him down.

Chris Heaton-Harris, the minister for Northern Eire, stated Johnson did have sufficient supporters to enter the poll on Monday. “We do have the numbers,” he instructed Sky Information. “That is not a difficulty.”

Johnson was given a lift on Sunday when Nadhim Zahawi, who was briefly finance minister earlier this 12 months, backed him to return to Downing Road.

“Once I was Chancellor, I noticed a preview of what Boris 2.0 would appear to be,” he stated on Twitter. “He was contrite and sincere about his errors. He’d realized from these errors how he may run Quantity 10 and the nation higher.

“With a unified workforce behind him, he’s the one to steer us to victory and prosperity.”

Johnson and Sunak met on Saturday night, in keeping with experiences. The Occasions political editor stated they’d not agreed any deal, and that Johnson had instructed his supporters on Sunday morning that he wished to a kind a brand new authorities.

Mordaunt, with the declared backing of 23 lawmakers, stated she was assured in regards to the progress she was making and was very a lot within the race to win. She stated a report that she had mentioned pulling out with Johnson in return for the promise of a job was “utterly false”.

Underneath the principles, if just one candidate passes the edge of 100 lawmakers on Monday then they are going to be declared as prime minister. If a couple of clears the hurdle, they may face a vote of round 170,000 signed-up members of the Conservative Occasion, with the winner introduced on Friday.