TThe race to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister has started in earnest after two other candidates signaled they would take part in the contest.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, announced his candidacy last night with a vow to transform the Conservative Party into a “broad church”. A close Grant Shapps ally said the Transport Secretary was also considering an offer.
Tugendhat is a member of the One Nation Group of Conservatives and, despite his lack of ministerial experience, has had the support of several MPs. In a piece for The Daily Telegraphhe pledged to end the recent surge in national insurance, cut fuel taxes and lift tariffs on foreign imports.
He had joined von Shapps, who was described by his friend and ally Robert Courts, a minister in his department, as a “great choice” for leader.
The courts said the party needed someone “with experience” and “campaign ability” – a reference to Shapp’s previous role as Tory party leader.
“Someone like Grant Shapps, my boss, would be a great choice,” he told the BBC news night. “I saw him working up close and I think he did an excellent job.”
The race for leadership is expected to be one of the most open in recent history, with more than ten candidates expected to declare themselves.
• Johnson eventually undone by Tory Sleaze
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid, Ben Wallace, Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt are expected to walk. Suella Braverman and Steve Baker have already announced their candidacy.
Among those believed to be considering running as well are Priti Patel, the home secretary, Jake Berry, head of the Conservative MPs’ Northern Research Group, and Kemi Badenoch, a junior minister and rising star in the party.
Conservative MPs want Johnson’s successor in office by early September, despite calls from Sir John Major to oust him now.
Graphics by Herman Hille-Dahl, Anthony Cappaert, Lucy Wright and Ademola Bello, with illustrations by Russel Herneman
The EU hopes to reshape relations
Labor will call a confidence vote in government next week if Boris Johnson is not ousted as prime minister.
Labor deputy leader Angela Rayner said Johnson must leave Downing Street immediately and urged Conservatives to “pull yourself together”.
“He has no faith in his own party, he’s a proven liar who’s mired in dirt and we can’t have that for a few more months. So we have to get rid of him and if they don’t we will call a vote of no confidence,” she told the BBC today Program.
Rayner said she and Sir Keir Starmer, the party leader, could both be replaced “very quickly” if they are fined by Durham Police for breaking coronavirus rules. Both pledged to resign if it turns out they broke the law by drinking beer and eating curry during last year’s election campaign.
“We have a lot of talent in our party that could emerge because we are a team and we are a government-in-waiting,” she said. “But like I said, both myself and Keir are very confident that we haven’t broken any rules.”
The EU hopes to reshape relations
The European Union hopes a new prime minister will be ready to reshape relations after what is seen as a welcome departure from Johnson.
Prague will host a meeting of EU leaders on October 6, as well as a broader pan-European summit, and the Czechs will extend an invitation to Britain in hopes a new Conservative leader is open to a “reboot” of ties with Europe .
EU governments are pleased with Johnson’s backing, and France is hailing his resignation as party leader and the Tories’ political turmoil as a deserved defeat of “populism”.
“I won’t miss him. It certainly proves that a Brexit mixed with populism is not a good cocktail for a nation,” French Finance Minister Bruno le Maire said today.
Prague is urging Britain to be invited to talks about creating a European Political Community based on shared security interests outside of the NATO defense umbrella.
“It would be good to take the UK to the summit and discuss a new European political community,” said a senior European diplomatic source closely involved in the talks. “There’s openness and willingness on our part to turn a new page in the relationship.”
Theresa May was caught on video dancing merrily at the Henley Festival last night, just hours after Boris Johnson announced his retirement (writes Charlie Moloney).
Wearing a red dress, May appeared to be enjoying the festival in Oxfordshire, near her constituency of Maidenhead.
In footage posted to Twitter, she was seen dancing to the sounds of My heart has been waiting for you by Craig David, who directed 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 Theresa May is dancing too!”
Theresa May yesterday at the Henley Festival
BACKGROUND
May’s dancing has been infamous since she tried her hand at dance floor diplomacy on a prime minister’s tour of Africa in 2018, when she was caught strutting around with students at a Cape Town secondary school. Their lack of rhythm had caused widespread hilarity.
Within days, May was seen dancing again, with much more enthusiasm but no more skill, at the UN campus in Nairobi, where she was taking part in a dance performance with Boy Scouts. On May’s return to Europe, she was ambushed by EU leaders in Salzburg, who scrapped their Checkers-Brexit plan in September 2018.
May nevertheless managed to win applause from her Conservative Party colleagues when she self-deprecatingly danced on stage to Abba’s tunes at the Conservative Party Convention dancing queen the following week.
The case is accused of not standing up to PM
The chief official behaved like a “spectator at a car accident,” said a former senior official.
Sir David Normington accused Cabinet Secretary Simon Case of not standing up to Boris Johnson in the turmoil of the past two years.
Normington, a former permanent secretary at the Home Office, said Case will play a crucial role in ensuring Johnson’s interim government delivers on the prime minister’s promise not to make any major policy decisions, and he said it was time for the cabinet secretary to “do.” kick up”.
“A key figure over the next few weeks is Cabinet Secretary Simon Case,” Normington said today on BBC Radio 4. “He’s got to make some rules, he’s got to set some boundaries.”
Asked if he thought Case would be able to rein in Johnson over the next few months of the caretaker government, he said: “I have a little doubt, he has presided over a drop in standards. He was dealing with a very difficult prime minister, but he seemed like the bystander at a car crash at times. This is the moment for him to fight back.”
Candidates have “inflated self-esteem”
With the race for leadership still in its infancy, a Conservative MP has derided the whole process, accusing the candidates of “inflated self-esteem”.
Workington MP Mark Jenkinson has released a bogus statement of his own candidacy to parody others who have launched their bids for leadership.
“I took advice from those I can trust to blow smoke up my ass,” he said. “Balance that against my own inflated self-esteem leads me to the conclusion that I should throw my hat in the ring and stand for election as leader of the Conservative Unionist Party.”
“For the next six weeks I will be available to promise you the moon on a stick. Ask and it will be yours.”
“Let me think about how I deal 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 embodied the way Boris Johnson won the support of the ‘Workington Man’ in former Labor seats in the North and Midlands.
No rush to leave for Johnson, says Cleverly
James Cleverly, the education secretary, said Johnson would remain in office until a new leader was elected.
“He said he will stay until the process is complete, he hasn’t set a timeline for that,” he told Times Radio.
“The timetable for this will be established by the 1922 Committee in relation to the Parliamentary phase and by the Conservative Party in relation to the party phase.
“Both organizations recognize the importance of getting this done professionally and quickly and I don’t think the Prime Minister has set a specific date for anything.”