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In the end, all of Boris Johnson\u2019s bluster couldn\u2019t hide the facts: He didn\u2019t have the votes to win the Conservative Party leadership contest and stage a political comeback just weeks after being forced out as prime minister.

The former Tory leader raced back from his Caribbean holiday to test the waters and try to garner the support of enough MPs to proceed to the next round. But as British media counted the number of declared supporters for Johnson, it cast doubt on whether he could cross the 100-vote threshold.

\u201cEssentially, the Boris Johnson bandwagon blew up,\u201d said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. \u201cHe really doesn\u2019t seem to have attracted anything like as much support as he hoped he would.\u201d

Sajid Javid, Rishi Sunak and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrive at No 9 Downing Street in 2021. Photo / AP, File

The 58-year-old Johnson is one of the most recognised \u2014 and divisive \u2014 figures in British politics. The self-deprecating court jester of a figure led the Conservative party to a thumping election victory in 2019 with his bombastic speeches and populist policies. But critics were repulsed by what they saw as a penchant for bending the rules and embroiling the party in a series of scandals that torpedoed its standing with voters.

Johnson\u2019s three tumultuous years in Downing St featured allegations that he gave lucrative government contracts to wealthy supporters, allowed a senior Cabinet minister to bully subordinates and improperly used political donations to redecorate his official residence.

He was finally brought down by suggestions that he mishandled sexual misconduct charges against a party official, which forced him to step aside after more than 50 Cabinet secretaries and lower-level officials resigned from his government.

But Johnson\u2019s downslide was encapsulated in the long-running controversy over Downing St parties in 2020 and 2021 that violated Covid-19 lockdown rules.

With an investigation into whether Johnson intentionally misled Parliament about those parties to get underway in coming weeks, the scandal hung over Johnson\u2019s bid to return to power like a guillotine. If the inquiry by a committee of MPs finds Johnson in contempt of Parliament, he could be suspended from Parliament and face a recall election.

That\u2019s not something Conservative MPs want as they try to unite the party, and the nation, behind the spending cuts and tax increases likely needed to restore the nation\u2019s financial credibility after outgoing Prime Minister Liz Truss\u2019 failed experiment with trickle-down economics.

\u201cThis all started because Boris Johnson was unable to run the government in the right way to keep it together \u2026 and to uphold the high standards of conduct that are necessary in the highest offices in the land,\u201d former party leader William Hague told Times Radio on Friday. \u201cSo the idea that him returning is the solution \u2014 that ... could become a death spiral of the Conservative Party.\u201d

Johnson\u2019s supporters tried to shrug off such criticism. Instead, they focused on the idea that their man made the right decisions when it mattered \u2014 leading Britain out of the European Union, rapidly rolling out vaccines to combat the coronavirus pandemic, and being among the first to send arms to Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression.

Just hours before Johnson bowed out, one of his most vocal supporters went on BBC television\u2019s influential Sunday morning political interview show and claimed he already had the support of more than 100 members of Parliament.

Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie Johnson. Photo / Getty Images

\u201cI have been speaking to Boris Johnson and, clearly, he is going to stand,\u201d said Jacob Rees-Mogg, who was a member of Johnson\u2019s Cabinet. \u201cThere is a great deal of support for him.\u201d

But media vote counts never supported the bluster.

As the leading candidate, Rishi Sunak raced past with 150 backers, Johnson\u2019s support stalled at 76, according to the Guido Fawkes website, which focuses on UK politics. The BBC counted just 57 Johnson supporters.

Matthew Parris, a columnist for the Times of London, saw the Boris boosterism as a strategy to scare off opposition.

\u201cMomentum is being manufactured through creating an impression that Johnson is already on his way to victory,\u201d Parris wrote. \u201cMysterious reports on social media suggest he\u2019s surging ahead among those MPs who are declaring \u2014 but the identities of some of these are undisclosed. They will [we\u2019re assured] reveal themselves \u2018later.\u2019\u201d

Johnson tried another gambit Sunday, trying to persuade Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, the third candidate, to drop out and support him as the only candidate with the broad appeal to unite the party at this difficult time.

Sunak and Mordaunt called his bluff.

\u201cI think he thought the shock and awe campaign might persuade Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt perhaps to surrender to him, to the supposedly inevitable,\u201d Bale said. \u201cBut they were much cleverer and realised that it wasn\u2019t inevitable at all.\u2019\u2019

Conservative Party leadership candidate Penny Mordaunt, left, and Andrea Leadsom arrive at the BBC studios, in London on Sunday. Mordaunt dropped out of the race. Photo / AP

Johnson blustered on until Sunday night, when it became clear he couldn\u2019t count on the party\u2019s right-wing for support. He threw in his cards after Suella Braverman and Steve Baker, who had backed him as leaders of the pro-Brexit European Research Group, gave their support to Sunak.

Alex Crowley, a one-time Johnson aide, said his former boss probably did have enough support to get on the ballot. But that wasn\u2019t enough to overcome questions about whether he was the right person to unite the party months after dozens of MPs refused to serve in his government.

\u201cThere were lots of influential voices within the party who were saying, \u2018actually you know, this isn\u2019t the right time, this isn\u2019t the right call\u2019,\u201d Crowley told the BBC. \u201cAnd, you know, Boris\u2019 natural instinct is, if he can\u2019t win then he doesn\u2019t want to compete.\u201d

But don\u2019t expect Johnson to fade from the political scene.

When Johnson left office in early September, he suggested he was planning to return to Downing St.

First, he left the House of Commons with the words \u201chasta la vista, baby\u201d, conjuring images of Arnold Schwarzenegger who famously promised to return as The Terminator. Then he left Downing Street with an allusion to Cincinnatus, the Roman dictator who laid down his arms and went back to his farm before coming out of retirement to rule Rome again.

On Sunday night, Johnson hinted his return had been delayed, not cancelled.

Boris Johnson speaks during the Nato summit in Madrid. Photo / Getty Images, File

With the next general election expected in late 2024, there\u2019s likely to be another leadership contest in the coming months unless Sunak can quickly unite the Conservatives.

\u201cI believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024,\u201d Johnson said late Sunday.

\u201cBut in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t govern effectively unless you have a united party in Parliament.\u201d

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