Mcvey joins undeclared Tory leadership race
● Rudd warns that no-deal May successor won’t command majority
E s t h e r M c Ve y b e c a m e t h e third Tory MP to declare their candidacy for the party leadership before Theresa May has announced her resignation, as the leading Remain voice in the cabinet warned against a hard Brexit supporter entering Number 10.
Ms Mcvey, a former work and pensions secretar y, quit the Cabinet in November in protest at Mrs May’s Brexit deal.
She joins Andrea Leadsom and Ror y Stewar t in declaring her desire to replace Mrs May, despite Downing Street s ay i n g t h e P r i m e M i n i s t e r would remain in place until a Brexit withdrawal agreement is approved by MPS.
Several more candidates are running undeclared leadership campaigns, and a crowded field is expected to include Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, Jeremy Hunt and Dominic Raab.
Ms Mcvey told Talkr adio: “I h ave a l ways s a i d i f I g o t enough support from my colleagues, yes I would. Now people have come for ward and I have got that support, so I will be going forward.”
The Tatton MP said the Conservative Party needed a leader who “believes in Brexit” and had “belief in the opportunities” it could bring.
Shadow S cottish secretar y L e s l e y L a i r d a t t a c k e d M s Mc Ve y ’s c a n d i d a c y, s ay i n g she had “defended the b edroom tax, described families using food banks as positive and ploughed ahead with the callous universal credit policy after being forced to admit that people would be worse off as a result”.
It came as the current Work a n d P e n s i o n s S e c r e t a r y , Amber Rudd, warned that a Tor y leader who backs a no - deal Brexit “would not be able to command a majority”. In a sign of the influence she hopes to weild in a leadership race, Ms Rudd said the “best prime minister we could have” would “deliver on a softer Brexit that could command a majority if we can work with Labour”.
paris.gourtsoyannis@scotsman.com A Tory MP has told Theresa May he will no longer s u p p o r t t h e U K g ove r n - m e n t i n t h e C o m m o n s unless the historical prosecutions of ex-servicemen and women ends.
In a letter to the Prime M i n i s t e r, f o r m e r a r my o f f i c e r J o h n n y M e r c e r said he found the repeated investigations into allegations – some dating back d e c a d e s – “p e r s o n a l l y offensive”. He said he was not to prepared to vote for g ove r nmen t l e g i s l a t i o n , except on Brexit, until the g ove r n me n t t o o k “c l e a r and concrete steps” to end the “abhorrent process”.
“I will not be voting for any of the government’s legislative actions outside of Brexit until legislation is brought forward to protect veterans from b eing r e p e a t e d l y p r o s e c u t e d ,” he wrote.