Boris Johnson’s allies have said they are “confident” he can secure the backing of the 100 Tory MPs he needs to make it onto the ballot paper in the contest to replace Liz Truss, The Telegraph reports.
Candidates have until Monday at 2pm to secure 100 nominations or their bid for the top job will fall at the first hurdle.
The high threshold that has been set means there will only be a maximum of three candidates but supporters of Mr Johnson have said they believe he can get over the line.
Nadine Dorries, the former culture secretary who is backing Mr Johnson, said: “I am quite confident he will get the 100 signatures.”
Meanwhile, an anonymous Cabinet minister told Sky News that they would “expect” Mr Johnson to hit the 100 number while a supporter of the former premier told Tortoise: "We have the 100 to nominate."
No candidate has yet formally declared that they are running to be the next Tory leader, but Mr Johnson, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt are viewed as the frontrunners in the race to replace Ms Truss.
A Tory MP calling for Boris Johnson to replace Liz Truss said the former prime minister can prevent the party from being “completely wiped out” at the next general election.
When it was put to him Mr Johnson was brought down by a mass exodus of his own ministers, Peterborough MP Paul Bristow told BBC Breakfast: “Well, that was then, this is now. We’re facing a crisis as a party. We could go down and be completely wiped out without Boris Johnson as our prime minister…
“Boris Johnson has a mandate from the members of the party and from the electorate. I’m sure my colleagues will reflect on that when they vote, and we can avoid a general election, we can go out and put this band back together, we can have political heavyweights around that Cabinet table and we can go on and win the next general election. I’m convinced of that”.
He said Mr Johnson can “unite all factions of our party”.
