Boris Johnson will miss the election campaign and Tories are panicking… but a fresh purge of Boris fans by No10 is still in full swing, write GLEN OWEN and ANNA MIKHAILOVA

Boris Johnson will be conspicuous by his absence from this election campaign – not by design, his allies insist, but because the election was as big a surprise to him as it was to most of the country. The ex-prime minister has booked a series of foreign trips that will take him out of Britain for most of the critical period.

However, his presence will still be felt across the counties this weekend as Tory Associations frantically select their candidates, amid claims that Johnson fans are being purged in favor of One-Nation Remainers and Rishi Sunak acolytes. Because candidates must be selected by June 7, the interviews will be moved to Zoom and the selection panels will be working during the holiday.

After Michael Gove became the latest high-profile departure, the Tories are trying to find almost 200 candidates in a process riven by blue-chip deceit and backbiting, with parliamentary hopefuls privately saying Downing Street is parachuting its minions into seats like Gove’s lets jump. safe Surrey Heath.

Nadine Dorries with Festus Akinbusoye who was selected as his party’s candidate for the Mid Bedfordshire by-election in 2023 following her resignation

The difficult meeting of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservatives on Thursday evening was typical, where last year’s by-election caused by the departure of former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries was lost. Defeated Tory candidate Festus Akinbusoye had hoped to be re-conducted for the general election but was ‘eliminated by a toilet break’, according to sources.

During a lull in the proceedings – which required narrowing down ten candidates to three, who would then be voted on by the Association – a senior member of the executive committee is said to have ‘bowed’ to his colleagues to remove Mr Akinbusoye from the shortlist . because ‘the Association is obliged to select him’.

Blake Stephenson, who emerged victorious, has been described by one source as ‘a Boris-hating Remain campaigner’.

The final three possible candidates included Jamie Wallis, the transgender MP for Bridgend, who announced last October that he would not stand for re-election in the Welsh constituency, two years after he crashed his car into a lamppost while wearing a black leather wore a mini skirt and high heels. He fled the scene but was later arrested and found guilty of failing to report an accident.

Last night Ms Dorries said: ‘Festus is a strong Brexiteer and a supporter of Boris Johnson – a political rock star on the street. Despite this, the Mid Bedfordshire Executive Committee decided not to put him forward for local party members to vote for him. A great local candidate has been pushed out of the seat he worked so hard for.”

As for Johnson himself, his allies are rejecting calls from Tory MP Andrea Jenkyns to stand in the election. Although Johnson spoke to Sunak on unrelated matters the day before the announcement on Wednesday, the prime minister still has not directly asked him to join the campaign. Discussions about his role are being conducted through two intermediaries: Johnson ally Lord Kempsell and Sunak’s campaign manager Isaac Levido.

Despite Boris speaking to Rishi Sunak the day before the general election announcement on Wednesday, the Prime Minister has still not directly asked Boris to take part in the campaign.

A source said: ‘Expect more sharp attacks on Starmer in Boris’s column in the Daily Mail and some other interventions, but he will be out of the country for most of the country.’

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister has denied reports that former Brexit minister and Johnson ally Lord Frost had been barred from serving as MP. Frost says he will now ‘consider the options’, but a source close to him said the selection process means he is unlikely to hold out.

The source added: ‘He would have to give up his seat in the Lords so it’s a big gamble. He hasn’t been blocked, but they haven’t exactly made it easy for him. Essentially, he needs to have a seat in a row where he knows an association will choose him – but that hasn’t happened. So he leaves it until the next election.”

Lord Frost’s experience stands in stark contrast to claims that Sunak’s allies are being dumped on deeply conservative constituencies.

An angry Brexiteer MP, who last week wrote a letter of vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘All they care about is trying to become the next MP for Stratford-upon-Avon. [where former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi is stepping down]. They do nothing to preserve the Red Wall.”

There are growing concerns about the influence of Gareth Fox, head of candidates, and his colleague Matt Lane. In leaked messages seen by the MoS, one Tory writes that candidates are being ‘pushed aside because they do not meet the woke sensibilities of Fox and Lane’. The source called on the party’s centre-right to “take back control after the general election”, adding: “I want my party back.”

More and more powerful Conservatives feel the same way. Last week, as Sunak dazzled his base with a snap election, there was a dinner with Tory party bigwigs. Among them were allies of Dougie Smith, the shadowy “fixer” accused of plotting to overthrow Mr Johnson. A source in the room said: ‘They spoke openly about how they brought down Boris and will now turn on Rishi.’

Donors have taken matters into their own hands and are only giving money to candidates they believe will take the Conservative party back to basics. One only sponsors right-wing candidates because he believes the party has been ‘taken over by the soft left center’.

It is also significant that the rivals lined up to replace Sunak after a likely election defeat are trying to influence the direction of the party, with former home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, along with the former minister of Immigration Robert Jenrick, are particularly active in reaching out to candidates. Patel has visited Tory associations and met potential MPs. “She’s going full throttle,” says a source. “The feeling is that whatever the outcome, we have to change.”

A Tory headquarters source dismissed the accusations of wokeism and rigged selections as ‘nonsense’ and said ‘people are using them as an excuse not to get selected’.

The Mail on Sunday revealed earlier this year that former Prime Minister Liz Truss had warned fellow members of the Tory right that they were losing the battle for the future of the party, arguing that the selection of the next generation of MPs was being distorted by unrest and unrest. political correctness takes precedence over conservative political ideology.

A senior ex-Cabinet minister said: ‘The biggest mistake was getting rid of Boris. It’s like taking out your best striker. There is no way we would be 20 points behind today – maybe 10, and he could reduce that in a campaign. If you had told colleagues that if they got rid of Boris they would have 150 seats left, they would not have done it.’

The ex-minister also said Sunak’s decision to call a snap election was ‘selfish’, adding: ‘Don’t underestimate the personal in politics. He hates the job. His wife hates it. Sunak thinks: ‘I want to have a nice summer with my family.’ He doesn’t care about the parliamentary party.’