Newspaper headlines: 'Boris breaks silence' and 'Rishi remains favourite'

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By BBC News
Staff
PA Media

"I'm Up For It" is the headline for the Sun and the Daily Express, quoting Boris Johnson, who's pictured smiling on his Caribbean break.

The Sun says he wants to "wrestle back the keys to Number 10". For the Express, it would be an extraordinary political comeback.

"Surely... not again" is the Daily Mirror's take. The paper says that while the nation battles "cost of living gloom", the former prime minister has been sunbathing on holiday. And after characterising Truss as Liz the Lettuce... the Daily Star also mocks up Johnson as a vegetable, calling him a "posh aubergine".

The Daily Telegraph reports that Rishi Sunak is pushing to secure the support of a majority of Tory MPs, in the hope of securing a "coronation".

The paper believes that following a planned indicative vote on the final two candidates, and before party members have their say, the loser could come under huge pressure to stand aside if there's a big margin of defeat.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Johnson supporter, tells the Telegraph he's strongly in favour of letting party members decide.

Several papers report on efforts by senior Conservatives to broker a meeting between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.

It's the lead for the Daily Mail, which says the aim is to prevent the Tory party being engulfed by bloodletting.

But a senior Conservative tells the Times that the animosity between the two men is too great for them to agree on who should be prime minister. "They hate each other", the source explains.

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Sunak's supporters tell the Times that a second Johnson term would be a disaster for the economy. In the Financial Times, an economist says there'd be a "dullness dividend" if Rishi Sunak succeeded Liz Truss, while a currency trader warns the markets would not welcome more scandals under a Johnson government.

The Guardian has the headline "Tory Tribes Go To War" as it points out that Boris Johnson is still facing an inquiry into the Partygate scandal, that could plunge the party into fresh chaos. A source close to the privileges committee of MPs tells the paper there's a huge amount of damning evidence against him.

In the Daily Mail, allies of Johnson say any new government led by him should table a motion to halt what they call a malicious inquiry, that could see him suspended from Parliament.

Not one of the papers' editorials explicitly backs the idea of Boris Johnson returning to Number 10, or indeed any other candidate. The Daily Express expounds on Johnson's qualities but concludes only that the party must come together.

The Daily Telegraph treads a similar path; while the paper's former editor, Charles Moore, urges him to "sit this one out", saying there's no evidence Boris Johnson ever took care of the public finances while in office.

Finally, the Daily Mail's picked up on amusement in 4th Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment about a painting depicting them handing out Covid tests in a supermarket car park.

The work was apparently commissioned by their reservist colleagues. One soldier tells the paper, "you can see the white lines in the car park, it's not exactly a warzone" adding "I wouldn't want it in my office".