Ex-Tory chairman Grant Shapps: Tories won't buy Remainer turn Brexiteer as next leader

Converting to cause won't be enough to win over party faithful, says Boris 'lieutenant'
Former Tory chairman Grant Shapps has named Jeremy Hunt and Sajid Javid as winners of the Tory leadership race
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The battle to succeed Theresa May escalated today as one of Boris Johnson’s “lieutenants” said it was unlikely that the Conservative Party would choose another Remainer-turned-Leaver as leader.

Former Tory chairman Grant Shapps said he believes party members will not pick as the next leader and prime minister senior Tories who backed staying in the European Union in 2016 — and named Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Home Secretary Sajid Javid as unlikely winners.

Mr Shapps supported Remain three years ago. However, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live today, he said: “The country voted to Leave ... but then trusted a Remain Prime Minister, a candidate who said ‘I was Remain, (this is Theresa May) but I will support Leave, in fact ‘Brexit means Brexit’.

“Having seen that that’s not been the case, they have not delivered, I think that the Conservative Party is unlikely to want to trust another Remain-turned-Leaver.”

Theresa May is facing calls to stand down as leader
AP

Pressed on whether he was talking about Mr Hunt, he added: “Anyone who is on that side, I guess that would be Hunt or Sajid Javid would be the obvious people.”

His intervention came just hours after Mrs May signalled to the executive of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs that she would announce within weeks that she is quitting No 10.

Mr Shapps, who called for the Prime Minister to stand down as long ago as autumn 2017, criticised the “lack of clarity” in her Brexit plans.

“One of the problems has been that we were not genuinely prepared to leave, so it wasn’t that ‘no deal was better than a bad deal’ it was that we would never leave without a deal and that was the reality under Theresa May,” he stressed.

Tory MP Simon Hoare, who suggested Mr Shapps was one of Mr Johnson’s “main supporting lieutenants”, said he hoped there would be “wide and deep field of choice” to be leader.

“I’m very much hoping that Saj, as our Home Secretary, puts his name forward,” he added. “He has got the breadth of ministerial experience, he’s got the right character, he’s got a fascinating back story, he’s an impressive guy and I will certainly be pressing and pushing him to put his hat in the ring — when the ring is created.”

Former foreign secretary Mr Johnson confirmed yesterday that he would be a contender, telling an insurance conference in Manchester that he was “going for it”.

A shortlist of two candidates will be selected by Tory MPs, with some opponents of Mr Johnson wanting to stop him getting “out the House”, before the final decision is taken by party members.

Sixteen other MPs already have campaign teams in place, or are mooted to be considering running, including Mr Hunt, former Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab, Environment Secretary Michael Gove, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Commons Leader Andrea Leadsom, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart, Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt, Mr Javid, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, Treasury minister Liz Truss, 1922 chairman Sir Graham Brady, with James Cleverly and Kit Malthouse the latest two names doing the rounds at Westminster.

Conservative MP Nicky Morgan, chairwoman of the Commons Treasury committee, warned against an alliance with the Brexit Party, as being demanded by some Right-wingers, stressing that it would be the “death knell” for her party.

She added: “For me the most important thing is making sure that the Conservative Party remains anchored in a One Nation approach to politics and that we appeal to the broadest possible coalition at the next general election.”

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