Analysis
KATE FERGUSON
Will Hurricane Boris hit Red Wall seats and blow away Labour? I was there last time and he just might do it again
Tory MPs are delighted at the prospect of having the ‘rock star’ former PM hit the campaign trail
JUST under three years ago I walked along the blustery seafront in Hartlepool with Boris Johnson.
It was May 2021 and the then PM was at the height of his powers.
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This Eton-educated, Latin-speaking Tory had done what no Conservative politician had done before — torn down Labour’s famous Red Wall in the 2019 General Election.
Now he was here in the rain on the North East coast to show he was no one-hit wonder and could keep on winning, in this case the 2021 Hartlepool by-election.
As soon as we got out of our cars Boris was mobbed.
Families dashed over thrusting their babies and toddlers toward him for photos.
Blokes swarmed toward us to bend his ear on politics, before grabbing the must-have selfie and walking off with a grin.
Even teenagers came over to elbow-bump Boris (it was, after all, during the Covid pandemic) with a smile.
Like a rock star
Hurricane Boris had come to town and no one could argue that he was not causing a stir.
The Tories won the by-election, Jill Mortimer becoming the first ever Tory MP for Hartlepool since it became a parliamentary seat in 1974.
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Back home in London, Sir Keir Starmer was so depressed about the defeat he considered quitting as Labour leader.
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Rishi Sunak wants to use BoJo to help campaign for the Red Wall seats.
The two men have not spoken in a year, although a couple of texts have been sent.
But the PM’s chief strategist, Isaac Levido, is keen to use that famous Boris stardust to help their struggling election campaign.
The Tories are between 20 and 25 points behind Labour in the polls.
Even Rishi loyalists admit they need all the help they can get.
“Boris can reach people that no other politician can,” one Rishi-backing Tory MP said.
“Having Boris out on the doorstep will quite literally be worth millions of votes.
“We would be mad not to get him out and about in the Red Wall seats.”
Since the news broke that BoJo may make a comeback for the election campaign his phone has been ringing red hot with calls from MPs desperate to get him along to their constituencies for fundraisers and campaign tours.
But the truth is, Boris has already been beavering away helping Tory MPs he is close to keep their seats.
Some Conservative MPs still call Boris “the boss” — and it is his face they plaster over their leaflets.
Last year Mr Johnson visited Bassetlaw, Notts, to help campaign and raise funds for MP Brendan Clarke-Smith, one of his most loyal lieutenants when he was Prime Minister.
And he has agreed to head to Middlesbrough to help another of his old allies, MP and former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke.
Sir Simon said: “It will be a fundraiser and I will get him to do what he does best — get out and knock on doors.”
Sir Simon has previously called for the Tories to replace Rishi as PM or get “massacred” at the election.
Recalling the 2019 General Election when Boris came to town, Sir Simon said: “People were flocking over for pictures, rolling down their car windows to call out and talk to him.
“He is absolutely gold-plated stardust.”
He urged Rishi to get on the phone to Boris to ask him, man to man, to help the party in their election campaign.
“I’m pleased that Boris is coming to support me and in my seat, it is for the PM now to make that move,” Sir Simon said.
Paul Bristow, Tory MP for Peterborough, Cambs, also thinks a Boris comeback could put rocket boosters under the party’s election campaign.
He said: “When he visited before he was totally mobbed, like a rock star. He had that gold dust, that rare ability to cut through with people.
“It’s like we had a star striker, he had a few bad football games and we sold him to Torquay United.”
Mr Bristow is a Boris loyalist who stuck with him during those final days when 57 ministers quit while calling for him to resign.
He says things have moved on now, but it would be bonkers not to deploy Boris for some much-needed firepower.
“We are where we are now but we need to pull our socks up and move on,” Mr Bristow said.
“We have to get the team back together. We have to have a team of all the talents. If you leave out Boris, that would be very silly indeed.”
So, will Boris make a comeback?
Nadine Dorries, a former Tory MP and one of Boris’s closest friends in politics, said: “Rishi Sunak needs to put his big-boy pants on, pick up the phone and speak to Boris Johnson if he wants him out campaigning in the Red Wall.”
Still loved by many
Perhaps the more important question for No 10 is, could Boris turn things around for the Tories?
Labour certainly think he would be a threat on the campaign trail, although they doubt the Tories can catch them.
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“Boris is ten times the politician Rishi is, but we would still beat him”, one Labour insider said.
A No 10 source said: “We’re one Conservative family, so it’s important everyone campaigns to make sure we have a Conservative Government lowering taxes after the election and not a Labour one raising them.”
Jill Mortimer is also hoping to get Boris back to the windswept seafront of Hartlepool.
She said: “I would be delighted to see Boris back on the campaign trail. He is still loved by many of the people I represent and he is missed.”
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So, will Hurricane Boris be back in Hartlepool again soon?
It looks more likely than it did just a few weeks ago.