Boris Johnson could return as prime minister in under a year, his close ally Nadine Dorries has said.
The former culture secretary said the mood amongst Johnson’s supporters had been “upbeat” after he abandoned his comeback bid last month.
“He will be back. I don’t know when, I don’t know how, I don’t know whether it will be 10 years or 10 months,” Dorries told The House magazine.
When Liz Truss resigned as PM last month, Johnson flew back to London to challenge Rishi Sunak for the party leadership.
But he dropped out of the contest after conceding Sunak was the overwhelming choice of Tory MPs.
Dorries said there was a “general air in the room” at a party thrown by Johnson to thank his supporters of “people saying he will be back”.
She said Johnson was using his time out of No.10 to “recoup” money spent while in office.
“I used to say that to be a prime minister you need to be rich because it costs you a lot of money,” Dorries said.
“It is part of the role to invite people to Chequers, but you have to pay for every cup of tea served out of your own pocket.”
In what will be seen as a pop at Sunak, the close ally of Johnson added: “So unless you are a multimillionaire, it is a problem.”
As prime minister, Johnson earned £161,401 per year.
During that time he accepted a £15,000 gift of a Caribbean holiday from a Conservative donor who co-founded Carphone Warehouse.
The Downing Street flat was also refurbished at a cost of £200,000, paid for by Tory donor Lord Brownlow.
Since standing down, he has accepted £50,000 in from the family of Tory donor Lord Bamford.
In early October he earned £135,000 for giving a speech in the United States to insurance brokers.
In a recent interview with Sky News, Johnson - who remains an MP - would not be drawn on his future plans, saying only he was “happy doing what I’m doing”.
Earlier this week he delivered a speech at the Cop27 climate change summit in Egypt.
His decision to attend the gathering was widely seen as forcing Sunak to U-turn and also fly to the meeting.