Bow Group Research Fellow Benjamin Loughnane has said that a viable challenger to Boris Johnson would likely come from the backbenches, not from Cabinet.

Boris Johnson has suffered another blow to his leadership after several resignations from his Number 10 team of aides this week, amidst reports that Tory MPs are considering whether to attempt to oust him over the PartyGate scandal.

Benjamin Loughnane, Research Fellow for Migration at The Bow Group, told GB News: “People are scurrying off the ship before it sinks.”

On the potential difficulties in replacing the aides, Mr Loughnane continued: “I think a lot of people are thinking, what is the point of taking a job if Boris could be out in a month, a couple of months, or even a year?”

Asked on who could be the successor of Johnson, the Bow Group fellow remarked: “The cleverest thing Boris has done is surround himself with people who are not a threat to his power. They are quite boring, quite mediocre, they don’t have much personality. They can’t command a majority the way that he can. Whether he’s deeply unpopular or not, he still has a certain pizazz which some of the people in Cabinet just don’t have.

“You’d need to look at the backbenches, some of the dark horses. I think there are some possible candidates but at the moment not in the Cabinet.

“I don’t think [Chancellor of the Exchequer] Rishi Sunak, who people have cited as a possible replacement, is worth what people say he is. I think he would collapse very quickly in a leadership contest.”

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