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Tory leadership: Boost for Boris Johnson as Gove tones down his criticism of his candidature - live news
Tory leadership candidates take part in press gallery hustings but Johnson stays away - live news
(about 2 hours later)
Here are some more excerpts from the Michael Gove interview with John Humphrys on the Today programme.
Q: Do you think a no-deal Brexit would undermine UK security?
Gove, the environment secretary and leadership candidate, rejected suggestions that Boris Johnson was anti-business, saying Johnson’s “fuck business” comment had been taken out of context. Asked about it, Gove said:
Javid says, under a no-deal, there would be no security agreement with the EU.
I think those words were taken out of context ... I think that, in context, someone was trying to suggest that because a particular business organisation took a particular view, that Boris was wrong. Actually, as we know, in some of the big questions that this country has faced, business has had a wide spectrum of views.
But the UK would still be one of the safest countries in the world.
I think, to be fair to London, he was emphatically pro-enterprise, and he supported financial services, and he made sure there was investment in infrastructure and in the support that our financial services, and that our other businesses, needed in our capital.
He says the UK would still try to cooperate with the EU through things like Interpol.
He dismissed suggestions that there were any moral grounds for rejecting Johnson as a candidate for PM. When it was put to him that moral probity might be a problem for Johson, Gove replied:
And he says he has been pursuing bilateral agreements with EU countries like Germany on law and order, despite people advising him against this.
I would dismiss that altogether ... Moral probity does matter. But I think that all of the candidates who are standing to be leader, in my view, are capable of being prime minister.
Q: Do you support drug safety rooms?
I personally think that Boris and all the other candidates are people who on every ground have what it takes to be a potentially good prime minister.
Javid says he is hesitant about this.
Later Humphrys returned to the theme, referring to Johnson’s history of telling lies and his incompetence as foreign secretary. Was Gove concerned about these issues? Gove replied:
Call him the odd one out, but he did not take drugs when he young.
If you want to put those questions direct to Boris himself, I know that he will answer them. But let me defend him ... I will happily defend Boris on this. There have been various attempts to to mount personal attacks against him and against some other candidates. I think that is wrong. Look, in the past, I have had my criticisms and differences with Boris. But I believe he is somebody who is capable of being prime minister.
He grew up somewhere where drug dealing was prevalent. He would not want to encourage that.
But the key question is - who do we believe is the person with the best record in office, and the clearest vision for the future.
Javid says he did not go to elite schools, like some of his rivals. He might not be as good a debate as them. But he thinks he is getting better as a communicator.
When pressed again, Gove said he did not share the doubts Humphrys had raised about Johnson.
He speaks as someone with life experience.
How important is morality in a new PM?Tory candidate @michaelgove says "all of the candidates who are standing are capable of being the PM" #r4today https://t.co/02LfvZXERj pic.twitter.com/Rqw3eRzgam
He says Asian parents want their children to go into professions like dentistry because these are professions where you have to pass exams. You get judged on merit. And that was partly why he went into banking, he says. He says Asians gravitate towards professions like that because they are more meritocratic.
Gove said he did not want to criticise any of the other candidates because they all needed to work together. He said:
Q: Will you hold monthly press conferences if you become PM?
I am not going to criticise other candidates because, in essence, we are all on the same time. I might play for Manchester City, you might play for Manchester United, we might have friendly rivalry, but when we are playing for our country together, we have got to make sure that we unite in order to do best for our country.
That’s an excellent idea, says Javid.
Gove highlighted one difference between himself and Johnson, saying that if he was close to getting a Brexit deal at the end of October, he would be willing to delay Brexit again to get it over the line. Johnson says he will leave the EU by 31 October come what may. But Gove argued that this approach could lead to MPs triggering a general election, which would put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street by Christmas.
Q; What do you think about President Trump’s anti-Khan tweet?
And here is some comment on the interview.
Javid says Trump should focus on domestic politics. Knife crime is a serious problem. But it is 10 times worse in the US than in the UK.
The Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges said he wrote up then new Gove approach in his column.
Q: If there were another referendum, would you vote leave or remain?
Like I wrote on Sunday, Michael Gove has admitted to friends it was a mistake to attack Boris so directly in his launch last Monday. That's why he's repeatedly passing up the opportunity to criticise him here.
Javid says he would vote leave.
My colleague Peter Walker has an alternative theory for Gove’s stance.
Q; How confident are you of getting the 33 votes you need tomorrow?
On R4 Michael Gove's half-spoken Tory leadership pitch seems to be, 'Make sure I'm in the final two just in case, as we'll need a safe pair of hands in No 10 if/when Boris implodes in a few weeks.'
“Extremely confident”, Javid says.
This is from my former Guardian colleague Jane Martinson.
He says there is a growing feeling in the party that the final two candidates should both be “credible change candidates”.
Michael Gove is using his #r4today iview to pitch for a job in the Boris cabinet
He is a good person to put Boris Johnson through his paces, he says.
This is from the BBC’s Emma Barnett.
This is similar to the argument used by Michael Gove this morning, which sounded a bit like: ‘Vote for me, and I will give Johnson some useful debate practice before his inevitable victory.’ See 9.18am.
Michael Gove on #r4today is trying hard to remain positive about all rivals and Theresa May. Might be an error not to land blows about others’ credibility - but he probably doesn’t wish to revive allegations of him being a backstabber. A clean campaign may not be a successful one
Javid ends with a bizarre line about how, if Labour win an early election, he does not know if Tories will be “up against the wall” first or if it will be journalists.
And this is from the BBC’s Rachel Byrne.
Q: Would you stop universal credit claimants having to wait five weeks for their money?
“To be fair to Boris...” Gove @BBCr4today is that a new I-agree-with-Nick catchphrase?
Javid says he supports universal credit. But he would look at aspects of how it works. It takes too long to make a claim, and he would review the appeals procedure too.
The Scottish Conservative MP Paul Masterton, who Matt Hancock for the leadership last week, has said that he will now be voting for Rory Stewart. Masterton explained:
Q: Do you accept the definition of a hard border in Ireland negotiated by Theresa May in December 2017?
With Matt out, I’m still looking for the same things: energy, intelligence and enthusiasm with a clear vision for delivering Brexit and for the country beyond it.
Javid says he does not have that definition in front of him.
Someone who really gets the Union, with ideas to strengthen and secure it.
But he is clear he would not agree to anything that would lead to infrastructure being put on that border.
Stewart got just 19 votes in the ballot of MPs last week, making him last of all the candidates left in the race. To avoid being eliminated in the next vote, on Tuesday, he will need not just to avoid coming last, but to get at least 33 votes (because candidates who do not hit this threshold will fall out, as well as the one who comes last).
Q: You were a banker before the crash. You must have known about the selling of dodgy products. What did you do to stop the crash?
It is a good morning for Boris Johnson. We have seen two developments that should firm up his chances of becoming the next prime minister; or perhaps more accurately, two developments that suggest that his rivals have given up hope of beating him.
Javid says he was working in Asia. There was a different business model in that market, he suggests. It was less affected by the crash.
First, Matt Hancock, the health secretary who withdraw from the contest on Friday, has announced that he is backing Johnson. He explains why in an article in the Times (paywall). Here is an extract from his article:
He says there was a failure of regulation before the crash.
I said when I withdrew from the contest that I’d consider the best way to advance those values. I’ve now spoken to all the candidates. They are all inspirational people, with many and varied strengths, and I would be proud to serve any of them as my prime minister. I have reflected on what is needed in the national interest, and how the approaches of the candidates fit with my values. Having considered all the options, I’m backing Boris Johnson as the best candidate to unite the Conservative party, so we can deliver Brexit and then unite the country behind an open, ambitious, forward-looking agenda, delivered with the energy that gets stuff done.
As a Treasury minister, he took the banking bill through the Commons.
Boris has run a disciplined campaign and is almost certainly going to be our next prime minister. We need to unite behind him with a strong team that can bring the party together and then bring the country together. After any debate like this, people need to put aside their differences for a greater purpose. My view is that we need to start coming together sooner rather than later.
Sajdi Javid, the home secretary, is here.
Second, and perhaps more surprisingly, Michael Gove, who is still in the contest and who hopes to make it into the final two for the ballot of party members alongside Johnson, has dialled down his criticism of the former foreign secretary. A week ago, at his campaign launch, Gove went for Johnson quite aggressively, condemning his proposed tax cut for the wealthy, implicitly questioning his seriousness and his commitment to Brexit, and at one point even appearing to make a joke about his sexual promiscuity (although he denied this was the intention, so perhaps it was just a case of us reporters thinking dirty).
Q: You talk about your backstory in very eloquent terms. But you have not said much about how you would help other people from your kind of background succeed. Do you regret, for example, the closure of Sure Start centres?
But this morning, in an interview on the Today programme, ‘Gove, the Johnson slayer’ had disappeared. Instead we heard a Gove who spent half the interview robustly defending his rival (much more convincingly, by the way, than James Cleverly, the Johnson supporter who was on the programme earlier speaking as a Team Johnson representative.) Gove rejected the idea that Johnson was anti-business (the “fuck business” was taken out of context, Gove insisted) and he refused to accept that there were any moral reasons why Johnson was not suited to be prime minister. He even at one stage seemed to imply that Johnson was bound to win and that the only reason he (Gove) should be on the ballot for party members was to ensure that Johnson got stretched a bit before his inevitable victory. Gove said:
Javid says education was the big thing for him. He does not think that is unusual in Asian families. It is clear that his vision has been formed by his upbringing and experiences. He wants a society where, if people work hard, they can succeed. He would focus on schools and further education. We need a multi-billion pound investment programme, as we have for the NHS.
At the moment, yes, of course it is the case that Boris is the front-runner.
Q: Did you work for MI6?
But we need to make sure that he is tested and that we have two candidates who go forward - if Boris is one of them - who we know are capable of being prime minister from day one.
No, says Stewart.
I will post more from the interview shortly.
And that’s all from Stewart.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Q: What do you make of President Trump’s latest tweet attacking Sadiq Khan?
10.30am: Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, gives a speech on Brexit. As Heather Stewart reports, he will say Labour should be at the forefront of the campaign to stop Brexit.
LONDON needs a new mayor ASAP. Khan is a disaster - will only get worse! https://t.co/n7qKI3BbD2
11am: All the Tory leadership candidates except Boris Johnson are due to take questions from press gallery journalists at Westminster. It is being described as a hustings, but effectively it is a series of on-the-record, but off-camera press conferences. These are from Christopher Hope, the Telegraph’s chief pol0itical correspondent who has organised the event in his capacity as chairman of the lobby.
Stewart says he has been a professional diplomat. You make your points forcefully - but in private.
This morning it is the Conservative candidates’ turn to face a grilling from 100 political journalists at the #LobbyHustings. Five have said yes; Boris Johnson is yet to agree. It starts at 11.10am. Each candidate gets 20 mins - they can make a statement and then face questions
Here is the running order:11.10am - 11.30am: Rory Stewart11.30am - 11.50am: Sajid Javid11.50am - 12.10pm: Jeremy Hunt12.10pm - 12.30pm: Dominic Raab12.50pm - 1.10pm: Michael Gove12.30pm - 12.50pm and 1.10pm - 1.30pm are still free for Boris Johnson. #LobbyHustings
2pm: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, holds a press conference with his Chinese counterpart, the vice-premier Hu Chunhua, after talks in London.
3pm: The Conservative 1922 Committee holds a private leadership hustings for Tory MPs.
As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I will be focusing mostly on the Tory leadership contest. I plan to post a summary when I wrap up at the end of the day.
You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.
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