Former education secretary hints at Tory leadership bid
‘Things need to change, don’t they, and I think people need to have some hope for the future, that Britain can be a country that runs differently and more fairly than it does at the moment,’ says Greening
LONDON: Former education secretary Justine Greening has suggested she could run to replace Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party.
Greening said “things need to change” as she lamented the Tory party not “showing what it can do for this country.”
She called on the government to do more to boost social mobility, saying it should be treated with the same importance as the NHS and welfare.
Greening, a staunch pro-european, resigned from the cabinet in January after May attempted to move her from the education brief.
She has since been a vocal critic of the government’s Brexit plan and has backed calls for a fresh referendum.
Her comments follow ongoing speculation about May’s future amid continued unrest among Tory backbenchers.
Calling for more focus on social mobility, Greening told ITV’S Good Morning Britain: “We need a guarantee on opportunity for people in this country in the same way that we try to give them guarantees on health and guarantees on dignity if they are falling out of work.”
When asked if she was making an early leadership pitch, she said: “Things need to change, don’t they, and I think people need to have some hope for the future, that Britain can be a country that runs differently and more fairly than it does at the moment.”
Pushed on whether she would run if there was a vacancy, the Putney MP said: “I might be prepared to, but I’m more interested in the Conservative Party actually showing what it can do for this country.
“Yes, we spent a lot of time having to ix THE nation’s inances But what we now need to do is discover — maybe rediscover — our own mission, which has got to be about how we make sure that young people growing up everywhere in this county have the same access to opportunity and it shouldn’t matter whether they have got parents who are maybe middle class, a bit more sharp-elbowed.
“Talent is spread evenly. The challenge of Britain is that opportunity Isn’t. THAT’S what we HAVE Got to ix.”
Greening would likely win support from MPS on the left of the party, who are looking for a candidate to back after Amber Rudd, the former home secretary who was widely tipped to run, was forced to resign over the Windrush scandal.