Rod Liddle: UK correspondent on why Boris Johnson withdrew from the UK leadership contest - The Mike Hosking Breakfast

In the end, all of Boris Johnson’s bluster couldn’t hide the facts: He didn’t have the votes to win the Conservative Party leadership contest and stage a political comeback just weeks after being forced out as prime minister.

The former Tory leader raced back from his Caribbean holiday to test the waters and try to garner the support of enough MPs to proceed to the next round. But as British media counted the number of declared supporters for Johnson, it cast doubt on whether he could cross the 100-vote threshold.

“Essentially, the Boris Johnson bandwagon blew up,” said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. “He really doesn’t seem to have attracted anything like as much support as he hoped he would.”

Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrive at No 9 Downing Street in 2021. Photo / AP, File

The 58-year-old Johnson is one of the most recognised — and divisive — figures in British politics. The self-deprecating court jester of a figure led the Conservative party to a thumping election victory in 2019 with his bombastic speeches and populist policies. But critics were repulsed by what they saw as a penchant for bending the rules and embroiling the party in a series of scandals that torpedoed its standing with voters.

Johnson’s three tumultuous years in Downing St featured allegations that he gave lucrative government contracts to wealthy supporters, allowed a senior Cabinet minister to bully subordinates and improperly used political donations to redecorate his official residence.

He was finally brought down by suggestions that he mishandled sexual misconduct charges against a party official, which forced him to step aside after more than 50 Cabinet secretaries and lower-level officials resigned from his government.

But Johnson’s downslide was encapsulated in the long-running controversy over Downing St parties in 2020 and 2021 that violated Covid-19 lockdown rules.

With an investigation into whether Johnson intentionally misled Parliament about those parties to get underway in coming weeks, the scandal hung over Johnson’s bid to return to power like a guillotine. If the inquiry by a committee of MPs finds Johnson in contempt of Parliament, he could be suspended from Parliament and face a recall election.

That’s not something Conservative MPs want as they try to unite the party, and the nation, behind the spending cuts and tax increases likely needed to restore the nation’s financial credibility after outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss’ failed experiment with trickle-down economics.

“This all started because Boris Johnson was unable to run the government in the right way to keep it together … and to uphold the high standards of conduct that are necessary in the highest offices in the land,” former party leader William Hague told Times Radio on Friday. “So the idea that him returning is the solution — that ... could become a death spiral of the Conservative Party.”

Johnson’s supporters tried to shrug off such criticism. Instead, they focused on the idea that their man made the right decisions when it mattered — leading Britain out of the European Union, rapidly rolling out vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and being among the first to send arms to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

Just hours before Johnson bowed out, one of his most vocal supporters went on BBC television’s influential Sunday morning political interview show and claimed he already had the support of more than 100 members of Parliament.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson. Photo / Getty Images

“I have been speaking to Boris Johnson and, clearly, he is going to stand,” said Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was a member of Johnson’s Cabinet. “There is a great deal of support for him.”

But media vote counts never supp