Rudd anger as leadership rivals parade wives
‘This shouldn’t be some Game of Thrones push for the Iron Throne. We’ve all got important jobs to do’
AMBER RUDD has criticised Tory leadership hopefuls for “parading” their wives in public, as the race to succeed Theresa May descended to the realm of personal attacks.
The Work and Pensions Secretary said she was “much more interested in policies” than photogenic partners, and compared Cabinet jostling for the top job with Game of Thrones.
It came as Philip Hammond said yesterday that Mrs May should be replaced “as quickly as possible” once a Brexit deal has been agreed. The Chancellor said a long, drawn-out leadership race would not be good for the country because it involved not only replacing the Conservative leader but also the Prime Minister.
Esther Mcvey, who resigned from the Cabinet over Brexit last year, became the latest MP to confirm that they will run in the leadership race after saying that she now had sufficient support to put her name forward once Mrs May resigns.
Ms Rudd has said she will mount her own leadership challenge if no other centrist candidate comes forward who she feels she can support, and she did not pull her punches when asked about rivals for the job.
Cabinet colleagues Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid and former minister Dominic Raab have all either posed with their wives or spoken about them in interviews in recent weeks, and Mr Hunt took his wife, Lucia, with him on an official tour of Africa.
Asked about it on BBC’S Newsnight, Ms Rudd said: “Don’t wind me up just because it is all the men putting themselves forward at the moment. People have a different way of addressing this leadership issue. I don’t think we need to parade partners in the way that we have been seeing.”
Ms Rudd, who was divorced from the writer AA Gill before his death in 2016, is intensely protective of her private life and has refused to talk about her current partner, other than to confirm she is dating.
She would not say who she would support if she decides not to run in a leadership election, adding: “Let them all speculate. This shouldn’t be some Game of Thrones push for the Iron Throne. We’ve all got important jobs to do. Let’s deliver on those.”
Rory Stewart, the International Development Secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, the Leader of the Commons, have already said they will run, and yesterday David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, appeared to be setting out his own stall in a speech that included a seven-point plan for the Tory Party.
♦ An MP who brought forward a law to make upskirting a criminal offence has been made Solicitor General by Mrs May in a mini-ministerial reshuffle. Lucy Frazer QC becomes only the third woman to hold the job and succeeds Robert Buckland QC, who becomes prisons minister, replacing Mr Stewart after his promotion this month. Paul Maynard moves from the whip’s office to become a justice minister, while Dr Andrew Murrison becomes a foreign office minister, replacing Alistair Burt.