Where is Boris Johnson? What ex UK Prime Minister is doing now - will he be at Conservative Party Conference?

Liz Truss faces a crucial Conservative Party Conference, after her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s poorly received mini budget. Unease has spread through the ranks of Tory MPs after a swathe of tax cuts presented without an economic forecast spooked markets.

The pound briefly fell to an all-time low against the dollar, with the subsequent near-collapse of pension funds forcing a massive intervention from the Bank of England, which bought up government bonds. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has repeatedly insisted she will not u-turn, and has even suggested benefits cuts could be on the way.

While economic uncertainty has plagued the nation, political uncertainty now plagues the Conservative Party. Ms Truss’s former leadership rival Rishi Sunak and several of his key lieutenants are set to miss the conference in Birmingham.

There are also major questions about what the PM’s predecessor, Boris Johnson, is up to given the support he continues to enjoy among the Tory membership.

So, will he be at the Conservative Party’s annual shindig? Here’s what you need to know.

What has happened to Boris Johnson?

Boris Johnson was ousted by his own MPs in July 2022 as a result of the political fallout from the Chris Pincher scandal and several other controversies, including Partygate and the Owen Paterson affair.

Despite trying to hold on to power - threatening the UK’s democratic institutions in the process - Mr Johnson was forced to resign as his government could no longer function given the substantial number of ministerial resignations.

During his resignation speech on 7 July 2022, he referenced the “will of the parliamentary Conservative Party” and the Westminster “herd” in an apparent attack on his own MPs.

The ensuing Conservative leadership contest saw Mr Johnson’s bitter rival, former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, prove popular among MPs but not as popular among Tory members as Liz Truss. Rather than distance herself from Boris Johnson, the new PM consistently praised him on the campaign trail.

After the leadership vote, Boris Johnson’s final speech outside 10 Downing Street saw him say: “It’s time for us all to get behind Liz Truss and her programme,” and “I will be supporting Liz Truss and our new government every step of the way.”

But he appeared to attempt to outshine his replacement when Queen Elizabeth II passed away on 8 September, releasing his own statement about the UK’s head of state just minutes before Liz Truss was due to address cameras in Downing Street.

Other than his appearance along with the other living former Prime Ministers at the Queen’s funeral in Westminster Abbey, and a Parliamentary tribute to her in Parliament, Mr Johnson has since gone quiet.

It comes amid speculation that he could be planning a political comeback should Liz Truss’s administration crumble. In his final appearance at Prime Ministers Questions, he said: “Hasta la vista, baby” - a phrase that can mean ‘see you again’ in Spanish - and said “mission largely accomplished, for now”.

The former PM is understood to be hoping to finish off a biography of William Shakespeare he has been writing on and off for seven years.

But any political ambitions are likely to hinge on whether he is found to have deliberately misled Parliament over Partygate. If MPs investigating the alleged breach of Parliamentary standards find that he did indeed mislead MPs, he might be suspended from the House of Commons.

His Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat is also precarious, especially if current polls are anything to go by. He holds a narrow majority of 7,100 votes.

Will Boris Johnson go to Conservative Party Conference 2022?

The presence of Boris Johnson at the Conservative Party Conferences he attended before becoming PM was always a distraction from what should in theory be the main event - the Prime Minister’s speech.

During his time as a cabinet minister under Theresa May, Tory members lapped up his speeches in the main conference hall. And when he was forced to resign as Foreign Secretary in 2018, he delivered what was essentially an alternative leader’s speech on the fringe of the conference.

The event saw members cram into a small hall to hear him speak, with queues to attend his event stretching throughout the ICC in Birmingham. Under 9 months later, he was the UK’s Prime Minister.

At the 2022 edition of the annual Conservative event, it will be his absence that will loom large over the conference hall. Boris Johnson is understood to be among the dozens of MPs who are not attending.

His absence may be an attempt to not distract from Liz Truss, who needs to pull off a successful conference to convince MPs and party members she was the right choice to be PM. But it could also be an indication that he does not support her economic agenda.

Given he has not said anything to publicly back Ms Truss since departing 10 Downing Street, it looks more likely to be the latter than the former.

Rishi Sunak will also be missing from the conference hall, with allies saying off the record that the ex-Chancellor is attempting not to take the limelight from Ms Truss. But his supporters are also staying away from the event, which hardly bodes well for Conservative unity.