Could Boris Johnson save the Tories? Poll shows ex-PM is only leader to beat Farage's Reform - amid talk of plot to oust Badenoch after election mauling

The Conservatives can only defeat Nigel Farage's Reform UK if it finds a way to bring back Boris Johnson, a new poll suggests amid rumours of a plot to oust Kemi Badenoch.

The former prime minister, who was forced out of No10 in 2022, is the only party leader under whom the Tories poll higher than their opponents on the right. 

The survey by More in Common may dampen talk of defenestrating Mrs Badenoch after a dreadful performance in the local elections last week, given that Mr Johnson is no longer even an MP.

Both she and Robert Jenrick, the shadow justice secretary who is seen as her main rival, would lose to Mr Farage. 

And Mr Jenrick, who ran for the leadership last year, is even less popular with voters than she is, the numbers suggest.

Almost 60 per cent of Tory voters and half of those who back Reform say a Johnson comeback would be good for the party - as do a third of Labour backers.

Backbenchers are reportedly to meet this week to discuss Mrs Badenoch's future after the Conservatives lost more than 600 seats in last week's local elections.

However rebels were branded 'deluded' by former leader and minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who said swapping leaders so soon would make the party a laughing stock.

Another MP told MailOnline that while some are 'unnerved and concerned' and want to change leader, most backbenchers 'understand our problems are much more deep rooted and know how silly we would look'. 

The party is currently languishing third in most opinion polls behind Labour and Reform, the latter of which took a massive chunk out of the Tories' council base on Thursday.

Mrs Badenoch said today that she is 'confident' she will still be Conservative leader at the next general election. 

She has only been in charge for six months, following the party's hammering at the general election last year, which followed a period where it had three leaders in the space of two years.

But some MPs are reportedly unhappy that the part seems to be going 'backwards'. 

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One told the Independent: 'We cannot continue as we are and she is just not up to the task.'

However, writing in the Express, former leader Sir Iain warned that 'Conservative voters haven't forgotten' the state of the party when it was in power.

'To those few Conservatives now briefing journalists that another leadership election is the answer I say, if after four leadership elections and utter disarray amongst MP's over the last five years, another leadership election is what they believe the public voted for, then they are deluded,' he added.

'This election result was frankly the second significant tremor after the first devastating political earthquake last year. 

'It underscored the level of anger too many Conservative voters still had for our mistakes and failures. 

'Not to mention the terrible behaviour of too many Conservative MPs at times appearing to care more for their careers than the lives of those they were sent to serve.'