Hopefuls STILL playing happy families
A PICTURE tells a thousand words in politics – so Tory leadership hopefuls were out in force at the weekend, cameras at the ready, to document their ‘normal’ lives. Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom went for a family walk in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, on Saturday with her husband Ben, daughter Charlotte and son Freddie, posting a selfie of the ramble on Instagram.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds were spotted birdwatching at Bempton Cliffs nature reserve near Bridlington, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, before tucking into a £7 fish supper from a local chippy. The photos follow recent snaps of Jeremy Hunt with his wife and Dominic Raab in his kitchen.
In contrast with her rivals’ outdoorsy approach, Esther McVey upped the ante by spelling out some of her policies, including a call to take billions of pounds from the aid budget to spend on domestic priorities in a ‘blue collar’ pitch for votes.
The former cabinet minister, who will formally launch her bid for the leadership this week, wants annual aid spending of more than £14.5billion to be cut to the 2010 levels of less than £9billion.
Her pitch also involves more funding for police and schools and axing HS2.
She will set out her stall today at the launch of a new Blue Collar Conservatism group that will concentrate on a domestic policy agenda to appeal to ‘ordinary working people’.
Miss McVey, who revealed her engagement to MP Philip Davies last month in the Mail, then starts a pub tour to meet voters.