As beleaguered former PM Boris Johnson stands down as MP, political editor Paul Francis considers whether Kent could feature in his future plans for a comeback...

What will Boris do next? After throwing all his toys out of his pram, it seems he has rather painted himself into a corner from which there is limited room to manoeuvre.

For someone who has unlimited reserves of political guile, he has pre-empted the critical - allegedly - report on whether he misled the public over ‘party-gate’ by walking out of Westminster and turning his back on his party. That’s a major strop if ever there was one.

His sign off concluded with the intriguing words “for now”, implying a longer-term plan to come back to politics at the right time.

This tantalising hint - or threat, depending on your view of the ex-PM - has at its core the prospect of a triumphant return to the political frontline via a by-election or simply as a candidate at the next general election.

Now, leaving aside the improbable nature of such a return, might it involve beating a path to the Garden of England?

There is, after all, a new parliamentary constituency being created - the Weald of Kent - that despite the Conservatives going into meltdown, is nominally a seat it would expect to win by some margin.

On the political scale, this is pretty unlikely to happen - but does not mean it won’t or indeed can’t.

But if you wanted evidence to corroborate the possible return being plotted, it’s not easy to find.

As one activist put it: “It is a spectacularly remote prospect. That doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t - who knows?”

As to the level of personal support he can expect to get, don’t hold your breath. Kent MPs have largely remained mute on Boris’s latest scrapes, even though most backed him in the leadership contest.

There was a supportive tweet from the South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay, who said Boris had been a “colossus” who had brought millions over to the Conservative Party.

As for other cheerleaders, they were conspicuous by their silence, at least on social media.

Even his arch enemy Sir Roger Gale remained quiet, but did so because so long as he remained acting as a Deputy Speaker of the House (probably until mid-October) he was prevented from commenting publicly upon such matters.

There was support for a suggestion by Nigel Farage that a new type of Tory party was needed. Step forward the ex-MP for Maidstone, Ann Widdecombe, who said in an interview: “The Conservatives need challenging. They've lost their way, they’ve become a high tax, high spend party, there's very little difference between them and Labour.”

How much traction would a party who had at its helm a triumvirate of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and Ann Widdecombe get? Now that would be interesting…