Boris Johnson not expected to join campaign trail

Desk report: The former prime minister Boris Johnson is not expected on the campaign trail between now and polling day on 4 July.

As first reported in The Times, external, his team insist he isn’t going on holiday instead of campaigning.

They say he has done what party headquarters have asked him to do, such as social media videos.

When he was asked whether Mr Johnson would be joining him on the campaign trail, in an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC, Rishi Sunak avoided answering.

“It’s been great having him supporting the Conservative Party,” Mr Sunak said.

“He’s been endorsing lots of candidates with videos and letters and that’s really great and I know that’ll make a big difference.

“Every week, as people can read in the Daily Mail, he’s very much pointing out the risks of what a Keir Starmer government would do to this country.”

Mr Johnson’s travel arrangements this month have been described as “long planned”.

Some Conservatives had hoped the deployment of Mr Johnson might help the party hold on – particularly in seats in the north of England and the Midlands, which the party won for the first time ever under his leadership.

But many Tories now fear these seats, often described as being in the “red wall”, are all but lost anyway.