I WANT A BATTLE TO BECOME PM
May, favourite for No10, rejects coronation and relishes fight for top job
HOME Secretary Theresa May has dismissed suggestions she could be crowned Tory leader without the party membership having their say. Some party grandees had said that, for the sake of party unity, other candidates should drop out of the race to allow the runaway favourite to take the top job.
But she rejected the calls, demanding a ‘proper contest’. A poll at the weekend showed Mrs May was backed by 60 per cent of Tory voters, with Michael Gove trailing on only 10 per cent.
The Home Secretary now has the declared support of more than 100 MPs – higher than her four rivals’ combined total. Her backers include heavyweight figures such as Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, who yesterday said now was not the time for the ‘talent of the future’.
In an article for the Mail (right), he said only Mrs May had the experience needed to conduct complicated Brexit negotiations.
MPs will hold their first ballot tomorrow to whittle down the five leadership choices to four. Further votes will be held
‘Nothing taken for granted’’
on Thursday and the following Tuesday, leaving two MPs. Tory party rules state these candidates will then go forward to the party membership.
Yesterday Mrs May dismissed suggestions that one candidate should be given a clear run if they receive overwhelming support from Tory MPs in early rounds.
She said she was not taking ‘anything for granted’, adding there is a need for the arguments to be heard by Tory members.
‘There should be a contest,’ she said. ‘I think it’s important members have their opportunity to have their say and I think what people want to hear is what the arguments are and people putting those arguments together.’ She added: ‘Obviously I hope I’m one of the candidates that will go forward to the membership. I don’t take anything for granted.’
Mrs May dismissed holding an early General Election for the new prime minister as ‘another destabilising factor’ for the economy. And she denied claims she was a ‘control freak’, saying she had handed over power in her time at the Home Office.
She said: ‘If, that somehow I was a control freak and people didn’t get on and like my style, we wouldn’t have a majority of ministers who’ve worked with me actually backing me. If you look at what I’ve done in policing I’ve actually given power away from the centre, not just talked about it.’
Mrs May also said yesterday that immigration could surge in the coming years as Europeans seek to enter the UK before Brexit takes effect.
The Home Secretary hoped to bring down net migration to ‘sustainable levels’ – but added that it was impossible to put a timescale on it.
And she suggested she would like EU migrants already in Britain to be able to stay after we leave the EU, although she said it was a matter for negotiation.
Speaking on ITV’s Peston show, she said: ‘If we’re looking ahead over the coming months and years once we get the issue of the EU negotiation sorted, the right deal for Britain, we may very well see in the run-up to that, people wanting to come here to the UK before that exit happens. So there are factors you can’t always predict what the timing and numbers of those will be.’
Former shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mrs May’s words ‘will only have increased the anxiety felt by EU citizens currently living in the UK and British citizens living in the EU’.
‘Suggesting that their status is subject to the results of the negotiations adds to the uncertainty, which is being exploited by extremists,’ she said.
Nick Boles, campaign manager for Michael Gove, said the ‘residency rights of EU citizens should not be put in doubt. Michael Gove is clear that they are valued members of society.’ The same assurance was given by Tory contender Andrea Leadsom.
Mrs May also appeared to back away from the Conservative Party’s long-standing target to get net migration down to the tens of thousands – talking instead of ‘sustainable levels’.
‘There’s still a job to be done from people outside the EU,’ she
‘I have given power away’
said. ‘There’s also, of course, the future negotiation in relation to free movement for people coming from inside the EU. I’m very clear the Brexit vote gave us a clear message from people that we couldn’t allow free movement to continue as it had hitherto.
‘We need to bring control into movement of people coming into the UK from the EU. So we’ve got to move ahead looking across immigration dealing with both those sides of types of immigration. But still I believe we should have that goal of bringing immigration down to sustainable levels.’ She added that she wants to ‘guarantee the position’ for EU citizens currently living in the UK and British citizens living in EU countries.
‘What’s important is there will be a negotiation here as to how we deal with that issue of people who are already here and who have established life here and Brits who have established a life in other countries within the EU,’ she said.
‘The position at the moment is as it has been, there’s no change at the moment, but of course we have to factor that into negotiations.’
Turkey wants to grant citizenship to Syrian refugees fleeing war, its president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. It comes as the country hopes to join the EU.