The race to succeed Boris Johnson as prime minister has really begun after two more candidates indicated they would participate in the competition.
Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, declared his candidacy last night with a commitment to turn the Conservative Party into a “broad church”. A close ally of Grant Shapps announced that the transportation secretary was also considering an offer.
Tugendhat is a member of the One Nation Conservative Group and has already had a number of MPs who have declared their support for him despite his lack of ministerial experience. In one piece for The Daily Telegraphpromised to eliminate the recent increase in domestic insurance, reduce fuel taxes and raise tariffs on foreign imports.
He was joined by Shapps, who was described as a “great choice” for the leader by his friend and ally, Robert Courts, minister in his department.
The courts said the party needed someone “who has experience” and is “capable of campaigning,” a reference to Shapps’ former role as chairman of the Conservative party.
“Someone like Grant Shapps, my boss, would be a good choice,” he told the BBC News. “I’ve seen him work up close and I think he’s done a great job.”
The leadership career is expected to be one of the most open in recent history with more than ten candidates declaring themselves.
Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Sajid Javid, Ben Wallace, Nadhim Zahawi and Jeremy Hunt are expected to participate. Suella Braverman and Steve Baker have already declared their candidacies.
Priti Patel, the secretary of the interior, Jake Berry, head of the Northern Research Group of Conservative MPs, and Kemi Badenoch, a junior and rising star minister, are also believed to be considering a candidacy. of the party.
Conservative MPs want Johnson’s successor to be in his place in 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 restore relations
The European Union expects a new prime minister to be ready to restore relations after what is considered the welcome departure of 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 in the hope that a new Conservative leader will be open to a “re-establishment” of the relations with Europe.
EU governments are happy to see Johnson’s back, and France celebrates his resignation and conservative political unrest as a well-deserved defeat of “populism.”
“I will not miss it. It shows, in any case, that Brexit mixed with populism is not a good cocktail for a nation,” French Finance Minister Bruno le Maire said this morning.
Prague is pushing for the UK to be invited to talks on creating a European Political Community based on common security interests outside the NATO defense umbrella.
“It would be good to bring the UK to the summit and discuss a new European political community,” said a European diplomatic source heavily involved in the talks. “There is openness and willingness on our part to turn a new page in the relationship.”
Theresa May was filmed dancing happily at the Henley festival last night a few hours after Boris Johnson announced she would resign (writes Charlie Moloney).
May, who wore a red dress, seemed to be enjoying herself a lot at the Oxfordshire festival, near her Maidenhead constituency.
In the images posted on Twitter, she was seen dancing to the sound of My heart has been waiting for you by Craig David, who headed the show. Jim Murphy, a former Labor MP, tweeted: “We all have different ways of celebrating the disappearance of Boris Johnson. I’m at the Henley festival and also the Theresa May dance!
Theresa May at the Henley Festival yesterday
FOND
May’s dance has been infamous since she tried the dance floor diplomacy on a prime minister’s tour of Africa in 2018, when she recorded her stuff with high school students in Cape Town . His 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 joined a dance performance with Scouts. On her return to Europe in May, she was ambushed by EU leaders in Salzburg, who shattered her Checkers ’Brexit plan in September 2018.
May still managed to win some applause from her Conservative party colleagues when she danced self-critically on the Conservative Party conference stage to the sound of Abba’s song. dancing Queen the following week.
Case accused of not confronting the Prime Minister
The head of the civil service has acted as a “spectator in a car accident,” said a former senior official.
Sir David Normington accused Simon Case, the secretary of the cabinet, of not confronting Boris Johnson during the tumult of the past two years.
Normington, a former permanent secretary of the interior office, said Case would play a key role in making sure Johnson’s interim government fulfills the prime minister’s promise not to make major political decisions and said it was time that the cabinet secretary “pass.” up ”.
“A central figure in the coming weeks is Cabinet Secretary Simon Case,” Normington said Today on BBC Radio 4. “You have to set some rules, you have to draw some lines.”
Asked if he thought Case would be able to control Johnson during the next months of interim government, he said: “I have some doubts, he has presided over a drop in standards. He has had a very difficult prime minister to deal with, but “Sometimes it looks like the spectator of a car accident. This is the time for him to take a step.”
Candidates have an “inflated sense of self-importance”
With the leadership race still in its infancy, a Conservative MP has mocked the whole process and accused candidates of having an “inflated sense of self-importance”.
Workington MP Mark Jenkinson has released a mock statement of his own candidacy to parody others who have launched their leadership bids.
“I’ve asked for advice from those I can trust to blow smoke up my ass,” he said. “This, compared to my inflated sense of self-importance, leads me to conclude that I should throw my hat in the ring and run in the election as 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 will be yours.”
“Let me worry about how I deal with three chancellors and a cabinet of 160. It is having the answers to these questions that makes me the most suitable candidate.”
Jenkinson’s victory in Cumbria in 2019 embodied the way Boris Johnson won “Workington Man” support in the former Labor seats in the North and Midlands.
There’s no rush for Johnson to go, Cleverly says
James Cleverly, the secretary of education, said Johnson would remain in place until a new leader is elected.
“He said he will stay until the process is complete, he has not put a timetable on that,” he told Times Radio.
“The timetable for this will be defined by the 1922 Committee with regard to the parliamentary stage and by the Conservative Party with regard to the party stage.
“Both organizations know how important it is to do it professionally and quickly and I don’t think the prime minister has set a specific date for anything.”