Leadsom ‘ready for top job’

ANDREA Leadsom yesterday said she is ‘seriously considering’ standing to become Tory leader.

She claimed the UK would have left the EU by now if a ‘determined Brexiteer’ had been in No10. Mrs Leadsom had pulled out the Tory leadership race in 2016, handing Theresa May the keys to Downing Street.

The Commons leader said: ‘I’ve supported her (Mrs May) for the last three years to get Brexit over the line and she has said she is going – so, yes, I’m seriously considering standing.’ The prominent Brexiteer described Mrs May’s deal as ‘tolerable’, but said she would be prepared to leave the EU without an agreement. She told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘I don’t think No Deal would be the disaster some people portray it as.’

Mrs Leadsom said: ‘If you’d had a determined Brexiteer, I suspect things might have been different. We might have been out by now...but, on the other hand, you would have left the country very divided.’