Surrounded by Ghosts: How the Conservative Party haunts Rishi Sunak

Boris Johnson decided to take a break from his career earning exorbitant sums of money abroad to return to the Commons and be an MP for a change - his presence was felt right across the Chamber on Monday when he sat in to listen to a speech on ‘Levelling up’. 

For many Conservatives, Johnson’s presence hangs like an ominous and foreboding fog. Those who view Johnson as this kind of darkened apparition are ‘fairly smart’ Conservatives. They are ‘fairly smart’ for they do not possess the short term memory of other Conservatives [such as Nadine Dorries or Jake Berry and a few others] and understand (fully) the reasons why he was made to resign from office in disgrace. 

For others, however, he serves as both a beacon of light and a thorn in the side of the current administration; a totem of discord and a rallying point for every Conservative that despises Rishi Sunak.

These MPs by contrast - those who still shine a torch for Boris Johnson - are ‘not smart’ Conservatives.