Boris For PM?

For some time now the question has been asked will Boris Johnson succeed Cameron as the man at the top of the conservative party? Well in public Boris has said he intends to finish his term as London mayor and if he keepsakes word we won't see him in Westminster until 2020.  But he won't defiantly keep his word and we could see him return to Westminster in 2015, but would this be good for the Conservatives?  The Prime minister already has some stiff opposition from the right of his party on issues such as Europe and some also are very unhappy with how he is managing the Liberals.  The Opposition is actually quite officiant to and includes well known Mp's such as Haltemprice and Howden MP the RT Honorable David Davis, the PM's opponents have already sunk the lib dems cherished house of lords reform bill.  Most of Cameron's opponents lie to the right of the conservative party and interestingly enough so does good old Boris.  Boris has not always been a strong supporter of the coalitions policies such as he wanted them to lower the top rate of tax even lower right down to 40p, but at last weeks conservative party conference Boris praised the PM and the cabinet for the work they are doing cleaning up Labour's mess.

The big question we have to ask is whether or not Cameron is genuinely unpopular with the right of the party or is it just down to the fact he is in a coalition with the Liberals? At the start of the year when Cameron vetoed a EU bill he was seen as a hero to those on the Right of the party but when he tried to push house of lords reform through Parliament he was seen as the enemy.  I see one of three things happening in 2015, if the Labour party win the election Cameron will either stand down or be booted out of the leadership of the conservative party and if Boris is in parliament be will be the next leader.  If the Conservatives win a majority and Cameron proves it was due to the politics of coalition he lost the right of the party and wins them back Boris won't be a threat to Cameron but he will be a threat to any other potential successors such as Osborn or Hauge. This next one is the dangerous one for the PM the conservatives either form another coalition or win a majority but Cameron remains unpopular with the right of his party if Boris is in Parliament he will be heralded as a hero of the right and he may challenge Cameron for the leadership. This is the only way I can see Boris being a threat to Cameron, in my opinion he is a threat to the next guy who wants to be leader.

Now if we stick with the final scenario of Cameron either being stuck in another coalition or having a majority and just being unpopular with the right, how could he deal with Boris? Well the obvious method to deal with a rival is to give them a cabinet job, if Boris is in the cabinet he can't speak out against the Prime Minister or he will have to resign due to collective ministerial responsibility.  Also if Boris is part of a cabinet that is implementing policy that is not popular with the right he may lose his popularity among the right of the party may decrease (although his popularity which is already high with the rest of the party may increase). He could also try to use Boris as his messenger to the right giving him the job of keeping the right of the party in return he could promise to back Boris in the next election.  He could also just ignore Boris and let him get on with his business as an MP.  Whatever happens it will be interesting to see how Cameron will react to Boris if the new Tory golden boy returns to Parliament in 2015.