Liz Truss had not even finished her announcement of resignation as British prime minister and already the word was out: Boris Johnson will attempt a comeback for his old job at Number 10 Downing Street 44 days after he was replaced by Truss.

The flamboyant politician known universally as "BoJo" was forced to resign over misstating his knowledge of parties at his official residence that violated regulations set forth by the Johnson government.

As much as Johnson's statements enraged British citizens and fellow members of the ruling Conservative Party, many Conservatives feel he has "paid the price" by leaving office and could return in the coming contest to succeed Truss.

Boris boosters point out their man led the Conservative Party to its biggest victory in 40 years in the past general election (2019) and their current 70-seat majority over all other parties in the House of Commons they owe to Johnson.

"We have a prime minister with a popular mandate and his name is Boris Johnson," Geoffrey van Orden, former leader of the right-of-center lawmakers in the European Parliament until the U.K. left, told a group of American conservatives last week.

"Unfortunately, he failed the integrity test."

The rules and timing for selecting Truss' successor have yet to be set by the Conservative leadership in the House of Commons. There were strong hints Thursday the 356 Conservative members of Parliament would alone select the new Conservative leader, who would then be formally asked by King Charles to form a new government.

Such a process would eliminate the primary-style vote among the 170,000 dues-paying Conservative Party members under which Johnson in 2019 and Truss in 2022 were selected as party leader after votes by the Conservative MPs reduced the field to two candidates.

Along with Johnson, former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and House of Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt are expected to stand for the leadership. Sunak, 42, led in every ballot by the House of Commons Members but lost the primary to Truss by 57%-43%.

Sunak's opposition to the tax cuts for high income Britons that Truss challenged and which was eventually her undoing is likely to assist his almost-certain candidacy this time.

Also a near-cinch to run for the leadership is Mordaunt, 49, a vigorous proponent of Brexit.

But neither Sunak nor Mordaunt have the populist appeal of Johnson to the Conservative grassroots. Only one leader of the Conservative Party has ever served bifurcated terms as prime minister — Winston Churchill, who served from 1939-45 and then from 1950-55. Churchill is Johnson's political hero and the subject of a critically acclaimed biographer by Johnson.

John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.