Former home secretary Priti Patel said she was backing Boris Johnson in the leadership race because he had a “proven track record”.
Priti Patel says she believes Boris Johnson has a mandate to deliver.
James Manning
She tweeted: “Boris has the mandate to deliver our elected manifesto and a proven track record getting the big decisions right. I’m backing him in the leadership contest.”
Mr Johnson arrived at Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning with his family after breaking off a holiday in the Dominican Republic following Liz Truss’s forced resignation on Thursday.
Sky News photographed the ex-prime minister and his wife Carrie Johnson in economy on an overnight British Airways flight back from the Caribbean with their children and said the MP received “one or two boos” as he boarded.
The flight, which was being tracked by around 7,000 users of the FlightRadar24 website, landed 47 minutes behind schedule.
Mr Johnson’s allies said he is “up for it” but he is likely to be opposed in the leadership race by his former chancellor Rishi Sunak, whose resignation was key in Mr Johnson’s departure from Downing Street this summer, as well as Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt.
And, while he is yet to formally declare he will run, Mr Johnson’s potential reinstatement has divided opinion even among his allies in the parliamentary party, including his former deputy prime minister and foreign secretary Dominic Raab.