Leadsom: I can be the new Thatcher
‹Energy minister says her strong Christian faith can guide her to the top in politics Tory grandees back pro-Brexit outsider against leadership favourite Theresa May Gove and Johnson feud deepens as Boris insists ‘plot’ was planned from the outset
ANDREA LEADSOM today lays claim to the mantle of Baroness Thatcher as she launches her campaign to become the second woman to serve as Britain’s Prime Minister. In a highly personal interview with
The Sunday Telegraph, the energy minister reveals the central role her Christian faith plays in guiding her politics and her life.
The Brexit supporter sets out her plan for a fast-track process of pulling out of the European Union, suggesting that the country could leave as soon as next year. And she warns Theresa May that she will not drop out of the Conservative leadership election to allow the Home Secretary to be appointed Prime Minister in a “coronation”.
With Mrs May clearly the favourite to win the contest, there is a growing chance that the party will elect a woman leader for the first time since Lady Thatcher.
Mrs Leadsom, who is also rapidly winning support from Conservative MPs, says she aspires to emulate Lady Thatcher’s leadership abilities, combining toughness with “personal warmth”. “As a person, she was always kind and courteous and as a leader she was steely and determined,” Mrs Leadsom says. “I think that’s an ideal combination – and I do like to think that’s where I am.”
Her comments come after Westminster was plunged into crisis in a week of turmoil unprecedented in peacetime. The Prime Minister resigned and Labour began a coup against Jeremy Corbyn in the wake of the referendum vote to leave the EU.
The fallout from Michael Gove’s shock decision on Thursday to stand against Boris Johnson for the Tory leadership escalated last night, with friends of the two men stepping up their assault on their enemies.
Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Gove seeks to explain how his “confidence” in Mr Johnson’s leadership skills “evaporated” in the days after David Cameron quit.
His friends claimed that he decided to stand after finding out that Mr Johnson had no draft of his leadership launch speech just hours before he was due to make it. “Michael was very angry,” one friend said. “Boris and his campaign were just a total shambles.”
But Mr Johnson’s allies launched a fightback against the Justice Secretary, drawing up a dossier of evidence that they say proves he is a “Machiavellian psychopath” who had been plotting to knife his friend in order to win the leadership “from the beginning”. One said: “It’s not over.”
At Westminster, the fraught atmosphere intensified last night, with some of Mr Johnson’s supporters claiming that Mr Gove was simply a “suicide bomber” who was being used by allies of Mr Cameron and George Osborne to “take out” their rival, the former London mayor. However, allies of both Mr Gove and Mr Cameron strongly denied that Downing Street had any hand in a plot. The Prime Minister told friends he was deeply shocked by Mr Gove’s behaviour and felt a sense of sympathy for Mr Johnson.
One friend of the Prime Minister said Mr Cameron was “astounded” by Mr Gove’s actions but recalled how the Justice Secretary had betrayed him in the referendum campaign. Mr Cameron believes Mr Gove failed to honour a promise that he would not campaign vigorously for Brexit.
The extraordinary feud between Mr Johnson and Mr Gove ended the former mayor’s leadership bid and has damaged the Justice Secretary’s chances of progressing in the contest.
With two leading Brexit campaigners suffering from their bitter personal clash, Mrs Leadsom is quickly emerging as the preferred candidate among Tory grandees and Eurosceptics.
Last night, she won the private backing of a senior Thatcherite grandee, as well as public support from Lord Tebbit, and Sir William Cash, the chairman of the Commons EU scrutiny select committee.
Sir William said: “Andrea is the authentic voice for Brexit. She is competent, she is experienced, she has knowledge of the EU issue and she will deliver.” Lord Tebbit, who served in Thatcher’s Cabinet in the Eighties, said he thought Mrs Leadsom was her political heir.
“She has a hinterland of business experience outside, which is something sorely needed these days among members of the House of Commons,” Lord Tebbit said. “If you look at her background, her beliefs and her record she is essentially a Thatcherite figure. She is the obvious candidate.”
Another senior Tory peer who also worked under Lady Thatcher in the Eighties agreed that she “may be” seen as the heir to the Iron Lady, adding: “I have been very impressed during her performance in the referendum debate. She has been entirely consistent.”
Tomorrow Mrs Leadsom, 53, will formally launch her campaign for the leadership of the Conservative Party at an event in Westminster. Her supporters suggest she has already won the backing of well over 50 MPs, including 21 publicly, putting her comfortably in second place behind Mrs May.
In her interview, Mrs Leadsom insists that only a Leave supporter can be trusted to take Britain out of the EU. She refuses to countenance allowing
Mrs May – who has signed up more than 100 MPs in support – to be crowned prime minister unopposed.
She says she is not a “reincarnation” of Lady Thatcher, but is happy to be compared with her.
“I met her a few times. I was always in awe of her and I don’t think people should be in awe of me. I’m just a normal person,” Mrs Leadsom says.
Allowing the Tory party’s 150,000 members the choice between two women would be great to encourage more young girls to consider political careers, she adds.
“There is still a sense in our society, a holding back of girls and young women, and I don’t think there should be. To give young women the confidence to think ‘I can do this’ – as Margaret Thatcher did to me – is great.”
Mrs Leadsom also reveals how her faith shapes her values and her politics. She says she studies the Bible with other Christians in a reading group inside Parliament.
“I am a very committed Christian. I think my values and everything I do is driven by that,” she says. “I do pray a lot – mostly for support and doing the right thing. That’s what I want – to be seen as principled and honourable … to do the right thing.”
Mr Johnson has yet to decide which leadership candidate he will back. He raised the possibility of forming a think tank to scrutinise the government’s deal with the EU on the terms under which Britain will leave. Mr Johnson told a gathering of Tories in Devon that he would be interested in shaping the exit-deal from the EU. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” he said.