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Dr Connal Parr, research fellow in humanities at Northumbria University, said he does not think Mr Johnson is in a good place, according to the polls.
He said this is partly due to the way the Conservative Party elects leaders.
The professor said: “What it would require is, you’d have a process where the leader would be replaced by 48 letters written to the 1922 committee, which is very powerful and Johnson simply doesn’t have enough support in the Conservative party for that to be credible.
“Even if they move against Theresa May, which is quite possible, I really don’t think that Boris Johnson will be the person to reap the spoils from that.
“It’s more likely to be somebody like Sajid Javid, I don’t think Ruth Davidson is polling well, and I have a strange feeling that somebody who might be quite popular is Jacob Rees-Mogg.”
The professor’s comments come after a poll conducted on August 1 for website ConservativeHome showed Boris Johnson the favourite to be leader, beating Mr Rees-Mogg.
There were 1,363 people surveyed for the poll.
MP for North East Somerset Jacob Rees-Mogg came third with 13 percent, which is a slight fall from 14 percent in the previous month.
The popularity boost came after the former Foreign Secretary resigned from the Cabinet over Theresa May’s Chequers Brexit plan.
But the professor said Mr Johnson may not have what it takes to lead the UK in negotiations.
He added: “Johnson is not regarded as a particularly good negotiator, there’s a personal charisma about him, there’s a pragmatic side, but it would probably echo the way Theresa May has been handling things.
“Therefore there will be a difference, but it will be between a kind of Jacob Rees-Mogg figure and Theresa May, rather than Boris Johnson and Theresa May.”
Dr Parr also said a no-deal Brexit seems likely.
Speaking to Sputnik, he said: “The EU has nothing to gain from a no deal Brexit, so there will have to be a compromise.
“As long as Theresa May’s government shows that it’s prepared to make some of those compromises, then there could be a salvageable potential deal.
“At the moment it does look like we are heading for a no deal Brexit, which would be some very sharp rocks for the UK economically.”
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