johnsons return was possibly the worst idea he had heard in almost half a century as a party member he said it would lead to a death spiral for the conservatives if johnson can secure the required number of nominations he is likely to go headtohead with sunak who quit as his finance minister in july claiming that his former boss was unable to take tough decisions sunak is the first leadership candidate to hit the threshold of 100 nominations to enter the contest before mondays deadline according to media reports johnson who currently has about half the support needed is currently under investigation by parliaments privileges committee to establish whether he lied to the house of commons over lockdownbreaking parties if ministers are found to have knowingly misled parliament they are expected to resign the contest to become britains fourth prime minister in four years has been accelerated to take only a week under the rules only three candidates will be able to reach the first ballot of lawmakers on monday afternoon with the final two put to a vote of party members for a result by next friday