British Conservative politician Rishi Sunak hit the minimum threshold to run for party leader late Friday as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson launched a bold comeback.

Cabinet member Penny Mordaunt was the first to formally announce her candidacy after the UK ruling party was forced into a second leadership contest following the dramatic resignation of Prime Minister Liz Truss.

“I am honored to be the 100th Tory MP to support #Ready4Rishi,” senior backbench Tobias Ellwood tweeted, as other Sunak supporters also said he had crossed the barrier.

Sunak will automatically become party leader and prime minister if his opponents fail to also win 100 nominations from their fellow Tory MPs.

Security Secretary Tom Tugendhat, who himself ran for leader after Johnson’s ouster in July, made a thinly veiled plea for the scandal-ridden ex-leader to stay out of the running.

“This is no time for political games, to settle scores or look back,” Tugendhat said while also agreeing with Sunak late Friday.

Neither Sunak nor Johnson have publicly stated that they are running.

But Johnson cut short a Caribbean holiday to take part in the accelerated contest where Tory MPs will vote on Monday ahead of a possible online vote for party members next week.

James Duddridge, one of Johnson’s closest allies in Parliament, said he was in touch with his old boss via WhatsApp.

“He said… ‘We’re going to do this. I’m ready for it,'” the MP said when a Sky News reporter released a photo that appeared to show Johnson on a flight home from the Dominican Republic.

Sunak and Johnson camps are reportedly seeking talks to see if there is scope for a settlement deal – although there has been plenty of bad blood since the former Prime Minister’s defenestration.

Mordaunt, who narrowly missed the runoff following Johnson’s resignation, said she was running for “a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the national interest”.

But polling firm YouGov found that three in five voters now want snap general elections, in line with opposition parties’ demands, as Britons grapple with a deepening cost-of-living crisis.

Labor and other parties are arguing that only an election can end months of political chaos unleashed when Johnson himself was evicted following an uninterrupted personal and political scandal.

In the resulting competition, Truss won the support of just over 80,000 Tory party members and defeated Sunak, who rightly warned that her right-wing program of debt-fuelled tax cuts would crash the economy.

Truss announced her resignation Thursday after just 44 tumultuous days in office.

Political website Guido Fawkes, which keeps a running chart of Tory MPs’ declared support, had Sunak at 103, Johnson at 68 and Mordaunt at 25 late Friday.

Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, a Tory grassroots darling, told reporters he is not standing himself. “Right now I’m leaning towards Boris Johnson,” he said.

But Wallace added that Johnson still had “some questions to answer” about the numerous scandals, leading to a pending inquiry in the House of Commons.

If Johnson is found guilty of lying to the Commons about the “Partygate” scandal – festivities breaching lockdown at Downing Street – Johnson could be suspended or even expelled from Parliament.

As a result of such controversy, Johnson left No10 with dismal poll numbers and other Tories were appalled at the prospect of his return.

Veteran backbencher Roger Gale warned that Johnson could face a wave of resignations from MPs who refuse to serve under him as leader.

Johnson’s ambiguous appeal was underscored by a YouGov poll that found 52 percent of voters opposed his return.

In Sunak’s constituency in Yorkshire, northern England, farmer Elaine Stones, 58, said the party made a mistake in voting for Truss over him.

“He’s honest, reliable and should have been chosen last time,” she told AFP.

But retiree Maureen Ward called Sunak a “backstabber” who helped topple Johnson.

“He wielded the knife and once you’ve done that, you can’t be trusted,” she said.