UNDER cover of darkness, Rishi Sunak slipped through the revolving glass doors to Boris Johnson’s campaign HQ without a single photographer catching him.
At around 8pm on Saturday, the former Chancellor came face-to-face with the ex-PM at a much-delayed peace summit half-way up the Millbank Tower overlooking Parliament.
Rishi Sunak met with Boris Johnson and the pair spoke alone for less than an hour
The pair had barely exchanged a nod since Mr Sunak published his bombshell resignation letter on Twitter without warning the PM personally, helping to trigger Mr Johnson’s July downfall.
The Westminster skyscraper was the HQ of ex-Labour leader Tony Blair’s historic 1997 victory, and where Tory PM David Cameron based himself in the run up to seizing power in 2010.
Now, at the fag end of that government, the Tories’ political fortunes are far grimmer.
Both men agreed that the party faces oblivion if it cannot pull itself together, but that was as far as any agreement went.
They spoke alone for less than an hour, and both sides instructed their teams that “what happened in the room was to stay in the room”.
However, HOAR can reveal Mr Sunak did not hold back.
One Tory source said: “It was friendly and cordial but the reality is Boris returning would be a disaster for the party and Rishi made that clear.”
A Sunak supporter said: “None of the problems that led to Boris Johnson’s downfall have been resolved. At best, they would’ve come back with a vengeance in coming weeks.”
Mr Johnson, for his part, was said to have “given Rishi the greatest hits” and made clear that were the two of them to “get the old band back together”, they could unite the party and turn their fire on Sir Keir Starmer.
But Mr Johnson was clear only he had a mandate to avoid a general election and must be top dog in a unity ticket.
The offer held little sway for Mr Sunak — and no such offer of a joint ticket was returned by the younger man.
One minister said: “They just don’t like each other very much. It was a massive deal for both of them to even be in the same room as each other after what happened in the summer.
“And it did not get much further than that.”
The meeting had been delayed by six hours, with previous attempts to hold the summit in the House of Commons. abandoned that afternoon.
An ally of Mr Sunak said: “Rishi was happy to go to him, Rishi had reached out. He’s always been keen to engage with any and all Tory MPs.”
