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Tory leadership: result of final MPs' ballot due at 6pm – live news Tory leadership: Jeremy Hunt to face Boris Johnson after Michael Gove eliminated – live news
(about 2 hours later)
The results are due very soon. My colleague Peter Walker is in the room. The Conservatives say there have been 20,000 applications for places at the 16 members’ hustings around the country. The party’s chairman, Brandon Lewis, has said:
I’m in the room for the result of the 5th and - please, God - final round of MPs’ voting in the Tory leadership contest. Only way we’d get a 6th would be tie for second/third. Result due at 6ish. I’d like to congratulate Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson on reaching the final stage of the leadership contest.
This is from Sajid Javid, the home secretary, who was knocked out of the contest at lunchtime. I’m delighted with the strong interest in our hustings to date, showing the vitality of our party in every nation and region of the UK.
If my ambition and conduct in this contest has set an example for anyone, then it has been more than worth it. My message to kids like me: pic.twitter.com/jaa2cMxM4z We are conscious that the Conservatives are not just selecting a new leader but also the next prime minister, and we take that responsibility extremely seriously at such an important time for our nation.
Sir Max Hastings, the former Daily Telegraph editor who used to employ Boris Johnson when he was a journalist, is a frequent critic of his former employee, but he has been particularly harsh on the PM programme just now. This is from my colleague Jonathan Freedland. Jeremy Hunt claims he is gong to give Johnson “the fight of his life” in a video posted to his Twitter account:
“I’m not sure he’s capable of caring for any human being other than himself,” says his editor for 10 years, Max Hastings, of Boris Johnson on @BBCPM Thank you so much to my colleagues who have backed me to get this far - and to Lucia for all her incredible support. The campaign starts now. Please make sure you join me by volunteering here: https://t.co/JP6DslIj8V #HastobeHunt pic.twitter.com/R3ZMLAz7Ur
UPDATE: And this is from the BBC’s Philippa Thomas. Of course, it may be a moot point. Mark Francois has told Sky News this evening that Johnson has promised the hard Brexit-supporting ERG, of which Francois is vice chairman, that Brexit will happen on 31 October “come hell or high water” if he becomes prime minister.
“I don’t understand why so many MPs who wouldn’t trust him with their wallet or their wife have fallen in behind him”. Max Hastings on #BorisJohnson @BBCRadio4 The former Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, is backing Boris Johnson, whom he describes as the man to “inspire and lead” the UK out of the EU.
This is from BrexitCentral’s Jonathan Isaby. Duncan Smith also said remain-supporting MPs should “stop bellyaching and moaning” and claimed Johnson had been misinterpreted in the BBC debate.
Four Javid voters declared for Johnson this afternoon but where does the rest of his vote go? It fragments, and three ways, but for what it’s worth, my hunch is that Hunt will have picked up a wee bit more than Gove to secure his place against Johnson in the Tory members’ vote. When Boris said it was eminently achievable he was talking about a trade agreement. He said at the beginning of the programme if we don’t leave on October 31 we will face a cataclysm.
Voting has closed in the fifth Tory leadership ballot. Duncan Smith arguably has a point – and it’s one he made in his post-debate spin. But he isn’t strictly right.
We are expecting the result at around 6pm. At the beginning, Johnson did indeed say the UK “must come out on the 31st October”. But when asked later by the host, Emily Maitlis, for an absolute guarantee the UK would leave on 31 October under his stewardship, he said: “Michael [Gove] was guaranteeing to get out by the end of December [2019]. I think that October 31st is eminently feasible.” (Johnson had been responding to a question from Gove about “getting [a] deal over the line” on or around that date or “ripping it up” just to keep to the timetable.)
This is from the BBC’s Jessica Parker, who is outside the room where MPs have been voting in the Tory leadership contest. He also spoke later about the importance of leaving with a deal, saying no one wanted a “disorderly Brexit”.
Sounds like all the votes are in for Johnson. His team, who are monitoring who’s in and out... “We’re done!” #toryleadership So, it’s – at best – debatable whether Johnson was failing to guarantee Brexit in any form on 31 October, or just failing to guarantee having a negotiated settlement done and dusted by that date.
The Conservative MP Chris Philp voted for Sajid Javid this morning. Now he is supporting Boris Johnson. However, what is less debatable is the accuracy of Duncan Smith’s “trade agreement” comment. No such document is on the table for Johnson to have referred to.
I have voted for @BorisJohnson in the final round today, and will do so again as a party member in July if he gets through. I believe decisive and bold leadership is needed to navigate us through these times The portions to be determined prior to Brexit – and those which Theresa May had such trouble getting through Parliament – are the withdrawal agreement and the political declaration.
David Lidington, the de facto deputy PM and formerly a Rory Stewart supporter, has emerged from the fifth round of voting to warn the final two candidates, whoever they are, to not focus too narrowly on issues like Brexit, saying the union of the UK is at the most risk he has ever seen, while the party faces “existential” challenges. Broadly speaking, these set out the terms of the UK’s exit and the foundations upon which a future trade deal could be built. Neither is a “trade agreement” in the most common understanding of that term and no trade deal would be agreed before Brexit.
Lidington told waiting reporters he would welcome a “vigorous” debate, but urged the final two to pitch their appeal widely. On Brexit, he also said a no-deal departure would risk the UK splitting up. He said: The Labour party has had its say on the news that Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt will face each other for the Tory leadership – and the keys to No 10.
I think the members deserve a proper debate about the challenges that face the country and the Conservative party. Now clearly, Brexit is going to be a key issue, but I really hope that the candidates do look beyond that. There’s perhaps little surprise in the fact that Labour wants a general election. Andrew Gwynne, its national campaign coordinator, has said:
You have to think back to 1992 since the Conservative party last won a clear overall majority, and even that was a fairly small one, and 2015 was smaller still. If you’re going by age group, you get to 51-year-olds before you find more people willing to vote Conservative than Labour. In 2017 we went backwards in BAME voters, who are a more important part of the electorate in many constituencies – in the suburbs, small towns. What a choice: the man who broke the NHS or the man who wants to sell it to Donald Trump. A handful of unrepresentative Conservative members should not be choosing our next prime minister. People should decide through a general election.
The Tory party is facing some existential political challenges, and the union of the United Kingdom is under greater strain than I have never known it in my lifetime. There are some key constitutional issues, some really key political challenges for the party, and I think it’s really important that the candidates show they’re up for addressing that. In April, in one of its regular surveys of Conservative party members, the ConservativeHome specifically asked how they would vote faced with a choice between Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt.
Echoing what Philip Hammond is saying in his Mansion House speech tonight (see 9.56am), on the union Lidington said: Johnson won by a landslide, beating Hunt almost two to one (61% to 33%).
The fact that England and Wales voted to leave in the referendum and Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain adds to those political tensions. We have to rediscover ways in which people can be both proudly Scottish and proudly British at the same time. I think the union of the UK needs to be a priority that runs through the heart of the next government. It is only a survey, and this time there will be a campaign, hustings, and debates, but this is probably a fair guide as to what the party thinks at the moment. It shows the scale of the challenge facing Hunt.
I certainly believe that a no-deal Brexit would add to the risks to the union – I don’t think it’s a secret I believe that – but I think, too, that we have to be confident about demonstrating that the union of United Kingdom brings benefits to every part of the Unitred Kingdom. That’s all from me for tonight.
The Conservative MP Kevin Foster, who voted for Sajid Javid this morning, says he has switched to Boris Johnson. My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.
Just been to vote in the Conservative Party Leadership election. It was a privilege to back @sajidjavid yet in this round I decided to vote for @BorisJohnson who has the best chance of delivering Brexit & who as Mayor of London reached out beyond our core vote. #BackBoris pic.twitter.com/z7N50njkxh From the Financial Times’ George Parker
Lord Heseltine, the Conservative former deputy prime minister and veteran pro-European, has told the BBC’s PM programme that he finds the state of his party “deeply depressing”. If you were @gavinwilliamson you couldn't have invented a more perfect result. @borisjohnson wins over half of Tory MPs; @Jeremy_Hunt sneaks past the feared @michaelgove but not in such a way that anyone could prove electoral jiggery pokery
“I think it’s deeply depressing great swathes of the traditional Conservative supporting vote is now basically disenfranchised.” Lord Heseltine talks to @EvanHD about the state of the Tory party #ConservativeLeadershipRace #bbcpm Mel Stride, Michael Gove’s campaign manager said Gove’s cocaine admission had damaged his leadership bid. “It stalled us and meant momentum was lost at that time,” he said.
Here is a useful chart with all the voting numbers from this round of the contest.
Clear summary of the five leadership ballots and a graphic demonstration of how well organised @BorisJohnson’s campaign and team have been. #BackBoris pic.twitter.com/U1kLBfyPYf
Conor Burns, the Bournemouth MP and a key member of the Boris Johnson team, dismissed the idea that they had lent votes to Hunt to make sure he progressed. He said:
The message came from Boris: if people want to support me they vote for me, no pissing around. We wanted at every stage to make progress. We wanted to go to the members will more than half of the party voting for Boris. That’s a really strong mandate and message from our parliamentary colleagues to our members in the country – get on board and let’s bring it all together.
And here is Jeremy Hunt praising the final four candidates in the contest (but not the others).
Reflection on this race: someone who started in care & reformed the education system, someone who took on the hard left and transformed London, the son of a bus driver who became Home Secretary and in case I forgot to mention an entrepreneur...a credit to our brilliant party