'BRIDGE OF SPIES'
Inside Rishi Sunak & Boris Johnson’s secretive summit to decide who would be PM – and signs rivalry is beginning to thaw
It comes amid Team Boris talking up the prospect of him hitting the campaign trail in Red Wall seats
IT has gone down in Westminster legend as the “bridge of spies” meeting.
And the details certainly read like something out of a Cold War thriller.
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Rishi Sunak met Boris Johnson on a mild October night in 2022 for a secretive summit to decide who would be PM.
That 45-minute showdown behind closed doors would seal the fate of the men, their party and their country.
Now, 18 months later, there are signs the Cold War is thawing.
Boris is weighing up making a comeback to help the Tory party on the general election campaign trail.
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Have Rishi and Boris finally put their feud behind them?
It was around 7pm when Mr Sunak arrived for the summit with his old boss Boris in Millbank Tower, a 1960s skyscraper overlooking Parliament.
The two were meeting to see if they could do a deal to carve up power.
Liz Truss had just quit after only 50 days in No 10.
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The financial markets were in a tailspin, the country in crisis.
These two big beasts were under enormous pressure to cut a deal to avoid yet another painful Conservative leadership election.
Truss admits she went ‘too fast’ and compares her pound-crashing mini budget to slaughtering a pig
After hours of talks about where to hold the talks (both camps wanted to keep them away from the cameras), Rishi agreed to take the short walk down the river from Parliament to meet Boris at his campaign headquarters.
‘Keep schtum’
Inside, Boris was supported by his chief spinner Ross Kempsell.
Rishi and Boris politely greeted each other — they were the first words they had uttered to each other in months.
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Three months earlier Mr Sunak’s resignation as Chancellor had brought Boris’s premiership crashing down.
The Tories had exploded into open civil war, with Johnson loyalists accusing Rishi of “stabbing Boris in the back”.
Could these feuding rivals put aside their differences for the sake of the country and party?
Boris and Rishi left their aides and held the peace summit behind closed doors.
Those briefed on what happened were “told to keep schtum”.
While much of that veil of secrecy remains, some key details can be revealed.
Boris urged Rishi to park his hope of becoming PM and come back to be his Chancellor.
Together, they could unite party and country and defeat Sir Keir Starmer, he insisted.
But Mr Sunak was determined to press on and fight for the keys to No 10.
His team were busy hoovering up endorsements — including from big beasts such as Kemi Badenoch — and he was sure he would have the 100 MP nominations needed to make it to the leadership ballot paper.
The economic outlook post Liz was obviously dire, and [Rishi Sunak] felt that he had the skill set required to deal with the problems facing the country
Anonymous insider
He also felt his heft as a former Chancellor was what was needed to steer the UK through the economic storm.
One insider said: “The economic outlook post Liz was obviously dire, and he felt that he had the skill set required to deal with the problems facing the country.”
Their meeting — “not fraught or tense or anything” — wound up less than an hour later with no Blair Brown-style deal done.
The two men departed amicably, but left as they had arrived: As rivals. The rest, as they say, is history.
Boris ended up pulling out of the race.
His team said they had the 100 nominations needed to make the final ballot and he would thrash Mr Sunak in a vote of party members.
But the shadow of the bitter Tory civil wars over partygate still loomed large.
Privately, some in Boris’s team thought he needed to get the backing of half the parliamentary party to be confident of being able to govern.
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Anything less and a cabal of Tory MPs could decide to blow up his premiership all over again, they feared.
As one pro-Boris MP put it: “Boris had the same people and the same problem — Liz hadn’t been in power long enough.
“He had the same parliamentary party who had got rid of him.”
Another ally said: “The advice was he needed to have a really big number.
“We had to manage the buggers, it was only a few months ago they were kicking off.”
Over the next 18 months the two men barely spoke. Boris ended up leaving Parliament.
Yet in Westminster, Rishi’s premiership has hit the rocks.
He has found himself the victim of negative Tory briefings, backbench revolts and leadership threats, including from some grumbling Conservatives desperate to “bring back Boris”.
But now it appears the Cold War between the two men may finally be over.
Boris is up for helping the Conservatives campaign in the general election.
And Rishi is keen to welcome him back into the fold.
“All the noises from Boris’s side is that he definitely wants to help,” a Downing Street insider said.
Team Boris is also talking up the prospect of him hitting the campaign trail.
He has voted Conservative and campaigned Conservative for decades. He is a Conservative through and through
Insider, on Boris Johnson
A source familiar with Bojo’s thinking said: “If there is the right opportunity to campaign, both for him and the party, of course he will do it.
“He has voted Conservative and campaigned Conservative for decades. He is a Conservative through and through.
“There is no reason to think that will change next time around.”
No detailed plans have been discussed yet.
And while Rishi and Boris have exchanged a few “general chit chat” texts, they have not spoken.
Signs of a thaw had emerged in recent weeks. They wrote a joint Instagram post on the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine a few weeks ago.
And Mr Johnson flew to Venezuela last month for talks with their president Nicolas Maduro.
The trip was done with the “active support” of Foreign Secretary David Cameron.
“It shows a bit of improved dialogue,” a Boris ally said.
If a proper peace deal can be brokered, most expect Bojo to hit the campaign trail in the Red Wall.
This is true Borisland — seats in the North and Midlands which finally broke with Labour on the twin promises Bojo would “get Brexit done” and keep Jeremy Corbyn out of No10.
It is these seats Rishi has struggled to woo. And with Ashfield MP Lee Anderson’s defection to Reform, his hold on these constituencies is already loosening.
I guess if it is going to be a bloodbath [Boris] needs to ask himself, does he really want to dip his hands in the blood?
Boris Johnson ally
Even Sunak loyalists admit Bojo has “star power” and would “turbocharge” their offensive.
But other allies of the former PM wonder if it is wise for Boris to get too involved in what looks like a heavy Tory election defeat.
“I guess if it is going to be a bloodbath he needs to ask himself, does he really want to dip his hands in the blood?” one said.
Ironically, it seems that Rishi may have the most to gain from a Boris comeback.
With the Tories between 20 and 25 points behind in the polls, the party could do with some of that famous Bojo gold dust to give their campaign a boost.
Back in Parliament, the corridors of power are again thick with talk of plots to topple Rishi.
Now he has ruled out a May general election, many believe he is at his most vulnerable.
His enemies believe a bloodbath at the local elections could leave him mortally wounded — allowing them to pounce.
“No confidence letters are going in,” said one senior Tory. “It is now a matter of when, not if, Rishi goes.”
But there is something in it for Boris too.
He is the boy who wanted to be “world king”. The man who felt he was cruelly booted out of power too soon and has hinted at a comeback.
A show of force on the campaign trail would remind Tories of his star power, his party loyalty and the most important thing at all — his ability to win votes.
As talk of Borismania once more sweeps through Westminster, the man himself is busy writing his memoirs.
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Perhaps he will choose to reveal what really went on in that infamous “bridge of spies” meeting.
More importantly, has he made his peace with the outcome of that fateful October summit?
SUNAK’S UP FOR A FIGHT
RISHI SUNAK will come out fighting against his critics this week by declaring the green shoots of economic recovery are emerging.
Official stats are expected to show that inflation has fallen from four per cent to 3.5 per cent.
It comes hot on the heels of last week’s news that the economy had returned to growth in January, with GDP up by 0.2 per cent.
The PM will kick off his week by unveiling a new £600million fund to boost small businesses at an event in the Midlands tomorrow.
A government source said: “Four years on from when Covid hit, Britain has been through tough times.
“The PM set out five priorities and that plan is starting to work, with inflation down, mortgages down, wages up, the economy forecast to grow and small boat crossings down by a third.
“He’s cut taxes for 27million workers and brought in the toughest ever laws to combat illegal immigration.”
Meanwhile, the Rwanda Bill will return to the House of Commons this week – and the Tories will turn the screw on Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party, who have vowed to bin the deportation plan if they get into No 10.
Home Secretary James Cleverly is expected to issue a rallying cry to warring Tory MPs to unite to “stop the boats”.