Boris Johnson has come out fighting against his Conservative leadership rivals by insisting the UK must leave the EU by the end of October with or without a deal. With upwards of 20 candidates set to stand for the leadership it is set to be a Titanic struggle but Boris maintains the overwhelming support of the Grassroots.
The foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, was the first cabinet minister to say he would stand, with Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary, making his decision on whether to stand over the weekend.The environment secretary, Michael Gove, and the home secretary, Sajid Javid, are also expected to stand but lack strong support.
Boris told a conference today in Switzerland: “We will leave the EU on 31 October, deal or no deal. A new leader will have the opportunity to do things differently and have the momentum of a new administration.”
A supporter of Johnson said he would make an effort to secure changes to the current deal to try to ensure the Northern Ireland border backstop would not endure indefinitely, but he would press ahead with leaving on 31 October if that cannot be agreed with the EU27.
One unnamed MP on the executive of the 1922 Committee who will be organising the leadership contest said those with the fewest votes would face pressure to drop out quickly so as not to take up urgently needed Parliamentary time.
The source said that after the first round they will be left with only 4-6 candidates left: “MPs and the voluntary party all want this done as quickly as possible.”
In terms of financial support in donations declared on the MPs’ register of interests in recent months both Boris Johnson and Dominic Raab easily outstrip their rivals with Johnson raising £130,000 and Raab £115,000. It is set to be an interesting few weeks for both the Tory Party and the country at large.
Lead Correspondent | David Clews is the Lead Correspondent for UNN, with over 20 years of political/campaigning experience and a wealth of social media and communication skills David gets to the heart of what is really important to the real people of the UK.
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