The race to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister has begun in earnest after two more candidates signaled they would enter the race.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, announced his candidacy last night with a promise to turn the Conservative party into a “broad church”. A close ally of Grant Shapps said the transport secretary was also considering a bid.
Tugendhat is a member of the Conservative One Nation Group and already has a number of MPs backing him despite his lack of ministerial experience. In a piece for Daily Telegraphhe promised to reverse the recent increase in national insurance, reduce duty on fuel and raise duties on imports from abroad.
He was joined by Shapps, who was described as a “great choice” for leader by his friend and ally Robert Courts, a minister in his department.
Courts said the party needed someone “who has experience” and was “capable of campaigning” – a reference to Shapps’ previous role as Tory party chairman.
“Someone like Grant Shapps, my boss, would be a great choice,” he told the BBC News night. “I’ve seen him work up close and I think he’s done an outstanding job.”
The leadership race is shaping up to be one of the most open in recent history with over ten candidates expected to declare.
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid, Ben Wallace, Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt are expected to run. Suella Braverman and Steve Baker have already announced their candidacies.
Among those also believed to be considering a run are Priti Patel, the home secretary, Jake Berry, head of Conservative MPs’ Northern Research Group, and Cammy Badenoch, a junior minister and rising star in the party.
Conservative MPs want Johnson’s successor to be appointed by early September, despite Sir John Major’s call for him to be removed now.
Graphics by Herman Hille-Dahl, Anthony Cappaert, Lucy Wright and Ademola Bello, with illustrations by Russel Herneman
The EU hopes to restart relations
The European Union is hoping a new prime minister will be ready to reset relations after what is seen as a welcome departure from Boris Johnson.
Prague will host a meeting of EU leaders on October 6, as well as a wider pan-European summit, and the Czechs will extend an invitation to Britain on the hope that a new Conservative leader is open to a “reset” of relations with Europe.
EU governments are happy to see the back of Johnson, and France is celebrating his resignation and Tory political turmoil as a well-deserved defeat for “populism”.
“I won’t miss it. In any case, it proves that Brexit mixed with populism is not a good cocktail for a nation,” said Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, this morning.
Prague is pushing for the UK to be invited to talks on the creation of a European political community based on common security interests outside of NATO’s defense umbrella.
“It would be good to bring the UK to the summit and discuss a new European political community,” said a senior European diplomatic source closely involved in the talks. “On our side, there is an openness and a desire to turn a new page in the relationship.”
Theresa May was pictured dancing for joy at the Henley Festival last night just hours after Boris Johnson announced he was standing down (writes Charlie Moloney).
May, who wore a red dress, appeared to be having a lot of fun at the festival in Oxfordshire, near her Maidenhead constituency.
In footage posted on Twitter, she is seen dancing to the tunes of My heart was waiting for you by Craig David, who headlined the show. Jim Murphy, a former Labor MP, tweeted: “We all have different ways of celebrating the death of Boris Johnson. I’m at the Henley Festival, and so are Theresa May’s dances!”
Theresa May at the Henley Festival yesterday
BACKGRID
May’s dancing has been scandalous since she tried to graduate to the dance floor during a premier tour of Africa in 2018, when she was recorded making out with students at a Cape Town secondary school. Her lack of rhythm had caused widespread hilarity.
Days later, May was seen dancing again, with much more enthusiasm but no greater skill, at the UN campus in Nairobi, where she joined a dance performance with scouts. On May’s return to Europe, she was attacked by EU leaders in Salzburg who scuttled her Brexit plan from Checkers in September 2018.
May still managed to win some cheers from her Conservative colleagues when she self-deprecatingly danced on stage at the Conservative Party conference to the tune of Abba Dancing Queen next week.
Case accused of failure to support the Prime Minister
The head of the civil service behaved like a “bystander to a car crash”, a former senior official said.
Sir David Normington accused Simon Keys, the cabinet secretary, of failing to stand up to Boris Johnson during the turmoil of the past two years.
Normington, a former permanent secretary at the Home Office, said Keyes would play a central role in making sure Johnson’s caretaker government kept the prime minister’s promise not to make major policy decisions and said it was time the cabinet secretary “step up”.
“A central figure over the next few weeks is Cabinet Secretary Simon Case,” Normington said Today on BBC Radio 4. “He has to establish some rules, he has to draw some lines.”
Asked if he thought Mr Keyes would be able to rein in Johnson in the next few months of a caretaker government, he said: “I doubt it a bit, he is presiding over a decline in standards. He had a very difficult prime minister to deal with, but at times he looked like a bystander in a car accident. This is the time for him to step up.”
Candidates have an ‘inflated sense of self-importance’
With the leadership race still in its early stages, a Conservative MP scoffed at the whole process and accused the candidates of having an “inflated sense of self-importance”.
Mark Jenkinson, the MP for Workington, has published a fake declaration of his own candidacy to parody others who have launched their leadership bids.
“I sought advice from those I could trust to blow the smoke up my ass,” he said. “This, when coupled with my own inflated sense of self-importance, leads me to conclude that I should throw my hat in the ring and run for leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party.”
“For the next six weeks I will be available to promise you the moon on a stick. Ask and it shall be yours.”
“Let me worry about how I cope with three chancellors and a cabinet of 160 people. Having the answers to these questions makes me the most suitable candidate.”
Jenkinson’s victory in Cumbria in 2019 epitomizes how Boris Johnson won the support of the ‘Working Man’ in former Labor seats in the North and Midlands.
Don’t rush Johnson to leave, Cleverley says
James Cleverley, the education secretary, said Johnson would remain in his post until a new leader was chosen.
“He said he would stay until the process was over, he didn’t put a timeline on that,” he told Times Radio.
“The timetable for this will be determined by the 1922 Committee in relation to the parliamentary stage and by the Conservative Party in relation to the party stage.
“Both organizations know how important it is to do this professionally and quickly and I don’t think the Prime Minister has put a specific date on anything.”
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