Tories want members to crown Boris unopposed

Ministers plot to ensure Johnson is only name on ballot to avoid ‘blue on blue’ battle

BORIS JOHNSON’S name could be the only one that goes forward to the party’s membership in the Conservative leadership election under a secret plan to avoid four weeks of damaging Tory bloodletting.

Senior Cabinet ministers without links to any of the six contenders are examining whether the former foreign secretary’s name alone might go forward to a “confirmatory” vote of the party’s 160,000 members.

The plan was hatched in the whips’ office amid concerns from party grandees that weeks of “blue-on-blue” attacks during a prolonged hustings battle would leave the eventual winner weakened, and provide ammunition for Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader.

In the past week, Mr Johnson has been accused by rival candidates of “poisoning politics” and pursuing “insane” tax cuts as well as being dismissed as “yesterday’s news”.

Under the proposal the remaining candidates would bow out late next week in favour of Mr Johnson, who has built a seemingly unassailable lead among MPS and grassroots Tories, before party members voted on a single question – whether they wanted Mr Johnson to be leader.

The biggest hurdle is to convince Brandon Lewis, the party chairman, to back the plan. He is determined to carry out the party’s wish for candidates to be grilled by members over 16 hustings events in every region of the UK over a four-week period starting in Birmingham next Saturday.

Those behind the plan hope that holding a “confirmatory ballot” will assuage Mr Lewis’s concerns.

Mr Johnson said yesterday that voters were growing tired of seeing senior Tories rowing in public. He said: “The public have had quite a lot of ‘blue-onblue’ action, frankly, over the last three years. We don’t necessarily need a lot more of that.”

The attacks on Mr Johnson continue today with Dominic Raab saying in an interview with The Daily Telegraph that he, as a grammar schoolboy and the son of a refugee, is better placed to win a general election than someone who is “easily caricatured as being from the privileged elite”.

Jeremy Hunt, the runner-up in the first ballot of MPS, also asked in a BBC interview what “Churchill would say” about a candidate “hiding away” because of Mr Johnson’s refusal to take part in tomorrow’s Channel 4 debate.

Mr Johnson is the clear favourite after the first round of voting with the backing of 114 MPS, well ahead of the remaining contenders Mr Hunt (43), Michael Gove (37), Mr Raab (27), Sajid Javid (23) and Rory Stewart (19).

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, yesterday dropped out of the race after receiving 20 votes from MPS. “I will now look for the best way to advance the values we fought for,” he said.

One Cabinet minister told The Telegraph that “power could shift very quickly” to Mr Johnson next week when Tory MPS hold a series of daily votes to whittle down leadership candidates to a final two.

The minister said the momentum was now so clearly with Mr Johnson that he could be within “touching distance” of the support of 200 Tory MPS by the end of the ballots on Thursday.

The party is committed to a long leadership contest because postal

ballots for members are only being sent out on July 8-9, which means that the result is unlikely to be brought forward from the week starting July 22.

Grassroots supporters were deeply unhappy that they were not given a vote in the leadership race when Theresa May was appointed Conservative leader in 2016.

Dame Cheryl Gillan and Charles Walker, the senior Tory MPS who are the returning officers for the membership’s ballot, have made clear to all the candidates they are expected to take part in the final run-off.

A source close to Mr Johnson made clear that his team was “happy to do the whole” campaign, including all of the membership hustings, against a rival candidate. The remaining candidates are in a scramble this weekend to scoop up the votes of the four contenders who have withdrawn from the contest since the first round on Monday.

Half of the 20 supporters for Mr

‘The party is understandably looking for a candidate for the unique circumstances we face right now’

Hancock are understood to be moving their support to Mr Gove, who was ringing around MPS asking for their votes yesterday.

Mr Hancock said: “I ran as the candidate of the future, but the party is understandably looking for a candidate for the unique circumstances we face right now.”

Mr Hancock was in talks this weekend about whether to endorse Mr Johnson or Mr Gove ahead of the second voting on Tuesday next week, in which contenders need to receive 33 votes to progress.

However, a possible Cabinet has begun to take shape with Mr Stewart, previously an outspoken critic of Mr Johnson, suggesting that he might serve in a Johnson Cabinet.

The International Development Secretary told Today on BBC Radio 4: “If we ended up in a crisis, and I fear nodeal Brexit would be a crisis, and if he were to wish me to come back, which I think is a little doubtful given the slight acrimony of the last few weeks, then, of course, I’d be honoured to serve.”