he's now politically dead too, in reality. This was his best shot of getting a top job and he's not taking it. Regardless of whoever actually gets to be PM, I doubt any of them are daft enough to give Boris one of the major ministry of state jobs, if only because they all know they can't trust him as far as they could throw him.

I suppose it's remotely possible this is another calculating move. I mean, whoever ends up as PM is going to basically be screwed because they won't be able to deliver on all the promises (lies) made by the Vote Leave lot.
Let whoever ends up as PM screw up leaving then ride in in time to take over just in time for the next election (or if it looks like it's going to go tits up wait until just after the Tories have been decimated by UKIP in general election then challenge for the leadership).

That was my opinion too


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That's true apart from one factor : the rest of the Tory party. If things do get screwed up they're going to lost a significant chunk of voters, and its not as if they have all that many to spare anyway. Plus if Brexit doesn't meet people's expectations (and in reality it can't) then they're going to get even more voters defecting to UKIP, or whatever UKIP turns into.

So likely to Tory party is going to be a in a bit of a state by the next election - possibly not as much as labour, but that's another argument. If so, the Tory party isn't going to blame whichever poor sod gets the poison chalice now, they're going to blame the bloke that filled it in the first place, and that's Boris.

The crux of the matter however is this : the Tory Party are, as I say, nothing if not pragmatic. Assuming whoever gets to be leader in September is completely burned out by 2020 (there now seems much less chance of a snap general election), the decision to elect Boris as party leader then is a pretty simple one - 'Is Boris the best chance we have of maintaining power?' if the answer to that is yes, then they'll put him in the chair. If the answer to that is no, they won't.

Not standing now on the assumption he'll be the most popular candidate next time round with the Tories favourite to win an election is a very risky gamble indeed. He won't want to be leader of a Tory party that loses an election any more than he wants to be leader of a Tory party that invoked Article 50, trashes the country and 'loses' Scotland to independence (i.e not much). He wants to be PM at a time of reasonable stability, because that's easy work and it gives him the most opportunity to do what he really actually wants to do - raise the profile and wealth of Boris Johnson.

It's very possible in four years time the political landscape will be totally different to what it is now. And his opponents can have four years of repeating the 'he was the guy who made the mess then ran away' line. I don't rate his chances any better than 50/50 tbh. However as we've seen in a very stark way, a week is a very long time in politics.

Well he's just [LIFTED] everyone over now.

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36679741

Apart from the “ooerr” headline (I really hope the BBC have a new policy to make anything to do with the Tories sound like some kind of lewd party in a basement somewhere in Soho), it’s too late now. He’s got a Twitter account.

Gove is going for " chose me, I'll limit immigration" I thought we knew he could not do that?


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They'd be foolish to elect Gove. He's the one most hated by the public.

Did Jeremy Hunt actually throw his hat into the ring in the end?

He doesn't appear to have. Whether that was because nobody would back him or he realised how toxic he'd be to the electorate or a combination of the two is anyone's guess.

A Prime Minister can't vanish from the public gaze, or hide behind a tree, if the pressure starts to mount.

I'd love to know what happened behind the scenes that saw Boris pull out for once in his life... Did Gove have something on him? The rest of the pro-Boris Tories seem especially angry.

Watching Question Time, it sounds like Boris went back to being his bumbling self and Gove decided he couldn't be relied upon.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36717447

Lol.