Boris Johnson confirms he won’t stand
Boris Johnson has said that due to the failure to reach a deal with Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, “I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds.”
The former prime minister said in a statement on Sunday night:
I believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024 – and tonight I can confirm that I have cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations, including a proposer and a seconder, and I could put my nomination in tomorrow.
“There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday.
“But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
He added: “And though I have reached out to both Rishi and Penny – because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest – we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this”.
More here from deputy political editor Rowena Mason.
Key events
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MP for Morecambe and Lunesdale David Morris has joined those backing Sunak’s leadership bid.
Now @BorisJohnson has pulled out of the contest, I will be joining @RishiSunak team. Rishi is experienced, competent and will make a great PM. He has the support of all wings of the Conservative Party and will be able to unite the Party and provide stability for the Country.
— David Morris MP (@davidmorrisml) October 23, 2022
The Liberal Democrats have said the Conservative leadership contest has become “a total farce”.
The Lib Dems’ deputy leader, Daisy Cooper, said: “This is a humiliating climbdown for Boris Johnson and all the Conservative MPs who wanted to put him back in No 10.”
She said the public will “rightly be furious that they’re set to endure a third Conservative PM in just as many months”.
“While people are struggling with their spiralling bills, the Conservatives look set to appoint a former chancellor who lost the country billions,” she says.
She reiterated calls for a general election, saying the country doesn’t need “another Conservative coronation”.
Rishi Sunak is now the clear frontrunner to be PM, with 150 MPs declaring for former chancellor, but Penny Mordaunt will be trying over the next few hours to win over Johnson’s backers and show she has a significant number of Tory MPs behind her.
Nadhim Zahawi has already said he will back Sunak, despite announcing earlier on Sunday that he would back Johnson’s leadership bid.
Moments before Johnson made his announcement, an article was published in the Telegraph written by Zahawi titled: “Get ready for Boris 2.0, the man who will make the Tories and Britain great again.”
However, the article is no longer available and link the to the web address reads: “404 – Sorry, page not found.”
This morning, Zahawi said Johnson had “got the big calls right, whether it was ordering more vaccines ahead of more waves of Covid, arming Ukraine early against the advice of some, or stepping down for the sake of unity.”
He said: “Britain needs him back. We need to unite to deliver on our manifesto.”
A day is a long time in politics…
Given today’s news, it’s clear that we should turn to @RishiSunak to become our next Prime Minister. Rishi is immensely talented, will command a strong majority in the parliamentary Conservative Party, and will have my full support & loyalty.
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) October 23, 2022
Boris Johnson confirms he won’t stand
Boris Johnson has said that due to the failure to reach a deal with Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, “I am afraid the best thing is that I do not allow my nomination to go forward and commit my support to whoever succeeds.”
The former prime minister said in a statement on Sunday night:
I believe I am well placed to deliver a Conservative victory in 2024 – and tonight I can confirm that I have cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations, including a proposer and a seconder, and I could put my nomination in tomorrow.
“There is a very good chance that I would be successful in the election with Conservative party members – and that I could indeed be back in Downing Street on Friday.
“But in the course of the last days I have sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do. You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
He added: “And though I have reached out to both Rishi and Penny – because I hoped that we could come together in the national interest – we have sadly not been able to work out a way of doing this”.
More here from deputy political editor Rowena Mason.
And another … Jerome Mayhew, the MP for Broadland in Norfolk:
Kevin Foster, the MP for Torbay, has become the latest Conservative MP to back Rishi Sunak.
He told his local paper, the Torbay Weekly:
In the face of the global economic headwinds we now face, of the three likely candidates, Rishi appears best placed to ensure families and businesses across our bay and nation are protected, whilst ensuring financial markets have confidence in our plans to do so. I also know he will ensure our support for Ukraine remains resolute.
He pays tribute to Boris Johnson’s stance over Ukraine, Brexit, coronavirus and support for measures in his Torbay constituency. But he adds:
Yet I believe we now need a fresh leadership to deliver the promise of a better Britain our 2019 manifesto set out, rather than a return to the arguments of the first half of this year, which brought Boris’ administration down in July.
Rowena Mason
Rishi Sunak has surged ahead in the race to be Conservative leader while Boris Johnson is mounting a last-ditch scramble to shore up support among MPs, amid warnings his return as prime minister would lead to a political crisis within a week.
As more senior party figures cautioned that a Johnson comeback would lead to chaos and an early election, Sunak won the support of 150 MPs – just shy of the number needed to keep all but one other rival candidate getting on the slate.
Sunak launched his official campaign with a declaration that “fixing the economy” was his priority, but he gave no media interviews or formal manifesto showing his proposed programme for government.
Read the full story here:
Our cartoonist Nicola Jennings’ view on the contest – whoever wins, the Tory party is heading for extinction.
There was scepticism from rival camps over the claim from Boris Johnson’s supporters that they had reached the threshold of 100 MPs needed to make it on to the ballot paper, PA reports.
Earlier a leaked WhatsApp message purporting to be from Johnson supporter Chris Heaton-Harris said: “I can confirm we have completed all the paperwork (verified all nominations, with proposer and seconder) to be on the ballot tomorrow.”
Backbencher Richard Holden, a supporter of Sunak, tweeted: “Very odd to brief this out again … It’s what they briefed yesterday.
“It’s almost as if they still need people and are desperate to show momentum, which they can’t because no one will publicly come out.”
Interesting to see that dozens of MPs now want Johnson back in power despite supporting his decision to step down as Tory leader in the summer.
A reminder that candidates will need 100 nominations from their fellow Tory MPs by 2pm tomorrow if they are to progress to a final poll of the Tory membership.
