Boris Johnson as PM will mean ‘chaos’ for markets, financial group warns

Or Boris Johnson decide to officially throw your hat in the ring Conservative leadership race remains to be seen, but according to the leading financial body, the former prime minister will return to the 10th position as prime minister will send financial markets into “total chaos” as Britain faces economic collapse.

Arriving early from his Caribbean holiday, Mr Johnson was involved in talks with his former chancellor, Rishi Sunak, on Saturday night. The purpose of the meeting is to strike a deal to avoid a leadership battle between the pair, although according to The Sunday Timesprominent Tory donors have asked Mr Johnson not to oppose Mr Sunak.

However, speaking further Sunday with Laura Kuensberg this morning, business secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said that Mr. Johnson had a lot of support and that he would be the leader Conservative Party. He said: “I’ve spoken to Boris Johnson and obviously he’s going to be running, he’s got a lot of support as you’ve seen.

Despite Mr Johnson’s claim that he already has 100 supporters, only 55 of them have spoken publicly. In response to this, Mr. Rees-Mogg said: “The system is that the names of the proposers and second names are published, other people have a choice whether to make their names public or not, but the people who do the numbers for Boris’s campaign tell me they have the numbers, so the 100 MPs needed there is.”

General director of the company the deVere group, Nigel Green, issued a stark warning following Mr Johnson’s return to the UK yesterday. The founder of one of the world’s largest financial advisory, asset management and fintech organisations, Mr Green said: “The second coming of Boris Johnson will draw the ire of already jittery financial markets.

“It was the markets’ appalling reaction to Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget that forced her to resign after just 45 days in office. Sterling hit an all-time low against the dollar, yields on gilts jumped and stock markets fell. The mortgage market, the pension market, the housing market, among others, took a hit. We can expect to see the same market carnage when Boris Johnson takes the keys to No 10.”

Detailing the reasons for his concern about Mr Johnson’s potential return, Mr Green continued: “There are several areas of concern for investors around Johnson’s potential return. First, he could abandon the stabilization work being carried out by the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who is desperate to repair the huge economic damage caused by the Truss administration.

“Secondly, the ex-prime minister is still under investigation by the Privileges Committee for potentially lying to Parliament. If Johnson is found guilty of misleading the House of Representatives, he could be removed from office and face by-elections, with the country electing another prime minister in January. Third, this is a man who was forced to resign just a few months ago after more than 50 members of parliament resigned from his government within 48 hours. They found him unfit for office.”

Earlier this week, CEO DeVere spoke publicly about the good work the new chancellor was doing, but admitted Mr Hunt faced an uphill battle to restore the country’s trust.

“For investors, the UK looks unmanageable and its economy resembles that of developing countries rather than the G7.

“A massive loss of confidence cannot be recovered so quickly. Reversals and abandonment of economic policy guidelines after economic policy do not inspire confidence and trust in investors. UK financial assets currently remain extremely unattractive to investors.”

He concluded: “Despite everything he has come to represent recently, the return of Boris Johnson will spook the financial markets and create even more economic turmoil in the UK.”

Rishi Sunak officially announced earlier today that he will be running for the leadership, saying he wants to “fix our economy, unify our party and achieve success for our country.” He joins Penny Mordant who announced her candidacy on Friday, saying: “I’m running to become leader of the Conservative Party and to be your prime minister – to unite our country, deliver on our promises and win the next general election.”

Mr Sunak currently has the declared support of 133 MPs, while Ms Mordaunt is slightly behind with just 23. Candidates are demanding at least 100 Conservative MPs be on the ballot. With just over 24 hours to go before nominations for the Conservative Party leader close, Mr Johnson has not had much time to announce himself as a contender. The nomination window remains open until Monday (October 24) at 2:00 p.m. If only one candidate gets the support of at least 100 Tory MPs by the deadline, that person will become the next leader of the Conservative Party and the country by default.

If more than one candidate reaches the 100 threshold, Tory MPs will vote for their favourite. Voting should take place on the same day from 15:30 to 17:30, the results will be announced at 18:00. In the event that three candidates reach the threshold, the person with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated and a second vote will be held between the last two between 18:30 and 20:30, with the result announced at 21:00.