May’s on march as 100-plus MPs back No10 bid
THERESA May surged further ahead in the race for No 10 yesterday.
Ten Cabinet ministers and 112 MPs have now declared for the Home Secretary.
As Tory MPs prepare to vote in the first round of the fight to succeed David Cameron, Mrs May today delivers a stark warning about the nation’s security.
She declares in an article in the Mail that she is the candidate to keep Britain safe from so-called Islamic State.
In a direct appeal to the Tory right, she also said Trident nuclear submarines should be renewed as soon as possible to confront the growing threat posed by Russia.
Last night, her old foe Boris Johnson dramatically announced he was backing Andrea Leadsom.
In a snub to Mrs May he said her rival’s financial experience was crucial.
Mrs May called on Mr Cameron, who has put most major announcements on ice, to hold a Commons vote on the nuclear deterrent within weeks.
In another day of post-Brexit political drama:
Nigel Farage quit as Ukip leader again, saying he wanted his life back;
Senior Tory David Davis declared for Mrs May, despite a series of run-ins with her;
Leadership contenders
rowed over whether the 2.2million EU citizens in the UK can stay;
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson will today urge union chiefs to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn;
A huge property fund stopped investors withdrawing their cash amid fears of a Brexitfuelled crash.
Last night, it emerged that Mrs May now has the backing of 122 Tory MPs – including ten members of the Cabinet and, in a significant coup, former shadow home secretary Mr Davis. Her total is more than her four rivals combined.
The latest two senior ministers to sign up are Environment Secretary Liz Truss and Communities Secretary Greg Clark.
The remaining four candidates can boast only three Cabinet ministers between them.
Energy minister Mrs Leadsom has moved into second place with 40 declarations. Michael Gove is struggling to pick up MPs angry at the way he knifed former leadership favourite Boris Johnson last week and is stuck on 32.
Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb is on 24, while former defence secretary Liam Fox has 13 supporters.
The MP with the least votes will be eliminated tonight. others might drop out if they perform badly. The huge lead enjoyed by Mrs May led to speculation that she could ‘lend’ votes to other candidates in order to determine who gets through to the final ballot.
Mrs Leadsom, who, unlike Mrs May, campaigned for Brexit, is the candidate best placed to challenge the Home Secretary.
But Mrs May’s allies denied she would try to manoeuvre Mr Crabb or Mr Gove on to the final list of two names. one said: ‘Theresa has no interest in those sort of games.’ Last night, an internet poll for the Conservative Home website said Mrs Leadsom had the support of 38 per cent of activists – a single point higher than Mrs May.
Between them, the pair mop up 75 per cent of the vote. Mr Gove, who had topped the survey in recent months, polled at 13 per cent. Liam Fox was on 5 per cent, a point behind Stephen Crabb on 6 per cent.
Mrs Leadsom was embarrassed over the weekend by quotes she gave to The Times in 2013. She had said she supported Britain staying in the EU, adding: ‘I don’t think the UK should leave the EU. I think it would be a disaster for our economy.’ Each of the candidates were given 15 minutes at a hustings run by the 1922 committee of backbench MPs last night.
Tory MP Mark Pritchard tweeted: ‘Scorecard (speeches) Gove (6/10), Fox (8/10), May (9/10), Crabb (7/10), Leadsom (6/10).’
Mrs Leadsom’s pitch to MPs was described by her rivals as a ‘car crash’.
She told backbenchers that she wanted to discuss three issues: ‘Bankers, Brussels and babies.’
one MP accused her of rambling and said she lost the room when she ‘ended up talking about the frontal cortex of a baby’s brain’. Another witness added: ‘People were talking to each other and playing on their iPads.’
one Cabinet minister reportedly said: ‘only four out of the five contributions we heard tonight were sane.’
Another MP criticised her for failing to distance herself from Ukip donor Arron Banks.
In contrast, MPs thumped the walls of the committee room when Mrs May spoke, to show their support.
Mr Davis said Mrs May understands the big issues with ‘impressive clarity’. He decided to back her after holding talks with her and Mrs Leadsom over the weekend.
Writing in today’s Mail, Mrs May says that – unlike the other leading candidates – she has years of experience dealing with grave threats to national security.
She wrote: ‘As Home Secretary, I have been the Cabinet minister responsible for counterterrorism for the last six years. Every week, I receive a personal briefing from the Director General of MI5.
‘And every day, I am given operational intelligence briefings about threats to our national security. Those threats are serious.’
on Trident – an issue of huge importance to Tory MPs – she says: ‘When it comes to the nuclear deterrent, the national interest is clear, the Conservatives are united and we have waited long enough.
‘The House of Commons should, before the summer recess, vote on Britain’s nextgeneration nuclear deterrent – and we should get on with getting it built.’
Holding an immediate vote on Trident would plunge Labour leader Mr Corbyn into a fresh crisis.
The majority of his MPs back the nuclear deterrent but he is likely to advocate a free vote – triggering massive new internal rows.
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