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Michael Gove to challenge Johnson for Tory leadership Michael Gove to challenge Johnson for Tory leadership
(about 2 hours later)
The environment secretary, Michael Gove, is set to enter the race to be next prime minister as the fight for the Conservative crown showed signs of turning increasingly bitter. Michael Gove is to enter the race for the Conservative leadership in a challenge to his old leave campaign rival Boris Johnson, who is the favourite with the party’s membership.
It is understood Gove will join an already crowded field on Sunday after the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, and former cabinet ministers Dominic Raab and Andrea Leadsom threw their hats into the ring. Gove, the environment secretary, is to pitch himself as a “unity candidate” capable of attracting leavers and remainers as he formally declared his candidacy.
As the Tory battle for Downing Street intensifies, Gove’s intervention is likely to cause concern to the frontrunner, Boris Johnson. A spectacular fallout between the two former allies in the 2016 leadership contest helped destroy both men’s chances of the top job. Johnson has already positioned himself as a hardline Brexiter, saying the UK must leave with or without a deal – three years after he dropped out of the 2016 contest to succeed David Cameron because he lacked support.
He was forced out the race immediately after the EU referendum when Gove turned on him with a withering critique of why the former London mayor would not make a good prime minister.
Speaking outside his west London home, Gove said: “I can confirm that I will be putting my name forward to be prime minister of this country. I believe that I’m ready to unite the Conservative and Unionist party, ready to deliver Brexit and ready to lead this great country.”
Asked if he thought he could beat Johnson, Gove said: “I’m entering this contest because I want to put forward a positive set of ideas about how we can bring our country together. I believe I’m ready to unite this country and ready to unite the Conservative and Unionist party, and I’m looking forward to a contest of ideas.”
Gove is the eighth candidate to enter the race for the Tory leadership after Johnson, Esther McVey, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Andrea Leadsom, Matt Hancock and Rory Stewart.
On the leave side, both Raab and Leadsom have set out hardline pledges to match Johnson that the UK must leave with or without a deal at the end of October.
Leadsom, who quit the cabinet last week when May opened the door to a second referendum, told the Sunday Times she had the “experience and confidence” to “lead this country into a brighter future”.
Raab said: “Over the long-term, both sides will want to build a new partnership. But we must also calmly demonstrate unflinching resolve to leave when the extension to negotiations ends in October – at the latest.”
On the more moderate side of the party, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, are both hoping to look beyond Brexit by persuading the party that elections can only be won on the centre ground with domestic policies.
Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, is thought to have signed up the most MPs, and used an interview with the Sunday Times to talk up his business credentials, arguing that his background as an entrepreneur meant he was “capable of negotiating a deal” with the EU.
Another potential contender is Sajid Javid, the home secretary, who is yet to declare whether he is running.
'Get Boris!': what the Sunday papers say about the Tory leadership dogfight'Get Boris!': what the Sunday papers say about the Tory leadership dogfight
Gove, who is attending the Hay festival on Sunday, is posing as a self-styled “unity candidate”. In a surprise announcement, Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, ruled herself out of the race, saying that a Brexiter was need to take the country forward “in order to command public trust”.
Hunt claimed his business background would help resolve Brexit as the leadership tussle fired up, with the international development secretary, Rory Stewart, launching a stronglyworded attack on Johnson. With only a short leadership contest before the end of July, there is already a battle under way among some soft Brexit and remainer Tories to stop Johnson and Raab becoming prime minister. Some Conservative MPs have indicated they could not support a hardline Brexiter as prime minister, potentially endangering the majority and ability to govern of any leader pursuing a hard departure from the EU.
Both Raab and Leadsom said they would be prepared to leave the EU without a deal in October if necessary. Writing in the Observer, David Gauke, the justice secretary, urged candidates to recognise the “enormously harmful” effects of a no-deal Brexit.
Hunt told the Sunday Times: “If I was prime minister, I’d be the first prime minister in living memory who has been an entrepreneur by background. Doing deals is my bread and butter as someone who has set up their own business.” “All those that do have such aspirations have a responsibility to set out their approach to Brexit, which is anchored in the hard realities of the situation,” he said.
Hunt’s emphasis on his entrepreneurial past is being seen as a swipe at Johnson, who reportedly once said “fuck business” in relation to Brexit. “We should not pretend that leaving the European Union without a deal will be anything other than enormously harmful to our economy, weaken our security relationships and threaten the integrity of the union.”
In a reference to mythical sea monsters, Hunt said. “The real question is: who has got the experience to avoid the Scylla and Charybdis of no deal or no Brexit. I’ve got very important experience in that respect.
“We can never take no deal off the table but the best way of avoiding it is to make sure you have someone who is capable of negotiating a deal.”
Hunt’s comments came after Johnson insisted he would take the UK out of the EU on 31 October with or without a deal.
Raab has told the Mail on Sunday he would prefer to leave the EU with a deal, but said the UK must “calmly demonstrate unflinching resolve to leave in October – at the latest”.
Leadsom, whose resignation helped trigger May’s dramatic resignation statement, told the Sunday Times that if elected PM, the UK would quit the EU in October with or without a deal. She said: “To succeed in a negotiation you have to be prepared to walk away.”
Sparks began to fly in the contest, with Stewart saying he would refuse to serve in a government led by Johnson as he appeared to compare the former foreign secretary to Pinocchio.
Stewart was scathing about Johnson’s no-deal stance, insisting that such a position was “damaging and dishonest”.
He told the BBC: “I could not serve in a government whose policy was to push this country into a no-deal Brexit. I could not serve with Boris Johnson.”
In a clear dig at Johnson, the international development secretary tweeted: “The star name will not always be the best choice. There may be times when Jiminy Cricket would make a better leader than Pinocchio.”
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said he was running for leader because the party needed to look to the future and attract younger voters. He said he would take a different approach to try to get Commons support for a Brexit deal than that used by Theresa May.
He said: “She didn’t start by levelling with people about the trade-offs. I think it is much, much easier to bring people together behind a proposal if you are straightforward in advance.”
Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said she would not stand for the leadership. She told the Sunday Telegraph she would back a contender who supported leave in the 2016 referendum.
Labour has said it will trigger a Commons no-confidence vote in the new prime minister when they take office.
The new Tory leader looks set to take over as prime minister at the end of July after May finally laid out a timetable for her exit from Downing Street. The timetable for the contest will see nominations close in the week of 10 June, with MPs involved in a series of votes to whittle down what is set to be a crowded field to a final two contenders.
Tory party members will then decide who wins the run-off.
Michael GoveMichael Gove
ConservativesConservatives
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