GAVIN Barwell says more Tory MPs are likely to step down before the next General Election – but that Boris Johnson probably believes he can get back in Number 10.

Lord Barwell, former chief of staff to Theresa May, spoke in the wake of Sajid Javid’s announcement he wouldn’t stand again for election

In an interview with GB News he said: “I suspect we’re going to see more significant Conservative MPs making the same announcement over the next six to 12 months or so.

“But it isn’t great for our politics. Sajid is still relatively young, and I think he could have had a sort of significant contribution that he could have made. It reflects, I think, two things. First, the reality that most Conservative MPs don’t think they’re going to win the next election. So being in opposition is not as attractive. And secondly, politics has been incredibly turbulent as you will have noticed over the last few years and I think some people are just you know, they’re exhausted with it and want to do something different.”

Commenting On what Mr Javid might do next, he continued: “I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t have some role in the city somewhere given his previous career, but I haven’t spoken to him about it.

I think it’s highly unlikely the Tories will win the next Election. I mean, first of all, they’ve been in Government for a long time. So even if we weren’t going through an incredibly difficult time at the moment, I think it would be difficult to win another election. But if you look at the polling, it’s very clear that Boris Johnson and Liz Truss did huge damage to the Conservative brand and however well Rishi Sunak does over the next couple of years, it’s going to be very difficult I think.”

On Boris Johnson’s decision to stand again, Lord Barwell said he “deserved credit” and predicted the former PM believed he could one day return to the top job.

“I’m sure he thinks there’s an outside chance. It’s to his credit, I think that he’s going to stand again,” he said. “My former boss Theresa May has stayed in Parliament. I think Parliament is stronger when you’ve got experienced former Prime Ministers and senior ministers that stay and continue to contribute. So although I have my differences with Boris Johnson, I admire him for saying that he wants to carry on and honestly think it is to his credit. It’s also to his credit that he’s going to stay and fight for the seat he’s in now, where a win is not guaranteed.”

Commenting on the Tories’ chances overall, he added: “I think even if the Conservatives hadn’t been through what they’ve been through over the last six months, it would have been difficult.

“If you look at a lot of the polling companies and websites, they do this kind of tracker where you can look at the polls over a period of time. And you can see, really, about a year ago when the Johnson government got into trouble over partygate and then particularly afterwards following Truss’ mini budget, how the Conservative support fell off a cliff. And it’s going to be very difficult. There’s the argument that it’s time for a change. But also, some of the things the previous Conservative Government did in the last couple of years have really damaged the brand of the party. So Rishi Sunak has a very hard job in that sense.”

Lord Barwell’s comments come as a GB News poll reveals the Tories are slipping further behind Labour.

According to the survey by PeoplePolling, Labour is on 46% of the national vote, the Conservative Party on 21%, the Liberal Democrats on 7%, the Greens on 9% and Reform on 7%.

This represents a 3-point fall for Conservative and a 2-point jump for Labour from last week, increasing the gap between the two parties to 25 points