ESTHER: I’LL RUN IF I’M ASKED TO
ESTHER McVey became the first potential Tory leadership contender to publicly admit an interest yesterday, saying she would run for leader if her colleagues asked her to step up.
The former work and pensions secretary, who stood down over her opposition to Theresa May’s Brexit deal, also warned it would be difficult for the PM to stay on if she loses the vote.
Though seen as an outsider, Miss McVey made no secret of her ambition, saying she would give ‘serious thought’ to standing if Mrs May was forced out.
Asked about her own leadership ambitions, she told Sky’s Sophy Ridge show: ‘If people asked me, then of course you’d give it serious thought and do it – if people asked me.
‘But at the moment I’m looking at who is in the papers, who we can get behind. But it shouldn’t be about the personality, it should be about the country and this deal.’
Miss McVey quit her Cabinet job three weeks ago over Mrs May’s plan. In her resignation letter, she said the deal did not honour the result of the referendum.
In her first TV interview since quitting, she denied she had cried after a heated five-hour Cabinet meeting to discuss the PM’s plan.
When asked if Miss McVey was keen to run for leader, one Brexiteer told the Sunday Times: ‘Esther is hunger wearing lipstick.’