Mordaunt urges Johnson to support her campaign as Sunak enters race
As the race to No 10 closes in on the finish line, ITV News reporter Harry Horton has the latest
Rishi Sunak has officially declared his bid to replace Liz Truss as prime minister, just six weeks after she beat him to the top job.
The former chancellor formally declared his intention to lead the race, after more than 100 MPs pledged their support for him.
ITV News Political Editor Robert Peston said the formal statement announcing his intent of running to become leader and PM "dashes Johnson’s hope he would stand down to clear the path for Johnson’s return."
The former chancellor announced that he would "fix our economy" and there would be "integrity, professionalism and accountability" throughout his prospective government.
Peston also reports that leadership contender Penny Mordaunt and Mr Johnson talked on Sunday - confirming reports she asked the former leader to support her in the race.
"She asked Johnson to pull out, to give her campaign a chance. He refused. She is under pressure from some of her MP supporters to pull out and throw her political heft behind Rishi Sunak.
"She won’t back Johnson."
Doubts have been cast on allies' claims that Mr Johnson has more than 100 backers, as less than half that number had publicly declared their support by Sunday evening.
Mr Johnson has yet to personally declare he is running.
But Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg claimed Mr Johnson would stand to be the next Tory leader on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kunessberg, after the former PM returned from holiday early as the race heated up.
The cabinet member said the former PM will "clearly" be involved in the leadership contest owing to the "great deal" of support that has rallied behind him.
Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak were said to be locked in talks late into Saturday evening as speculation mounted over whether the pair could strike a deal to lay the foundations for a unified Conservative government.
Mr Johnson was lagging behind his former chancellor in public support from MPs as Mr Sunak gained a valuable ally in both Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman on Saturday, with backers of the ex-PM challenged over claims he had reached the number required to secure a spot on the Tory ballot paper.
He also gained the valuable backing of Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker, an influential figure on the Tory right as the former head of backbench Brexiteers.
He also gained the valuable backing of Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker, an influential figure on the Tory right as the former head of backbench Brexiteers.
Mr Baker was scathing in his assessment of what a comeback by Mr Johnson would mean.
He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday: “Boris would be a guaranteed disaster.
Rishi Sunak leaving his home after his meeting with Boris Johnson
Sir James Duddridge, a friend of Mr Johnson, said the former prime minister had the support of the 100 MPs required to reserve his place in the vote.
Cabinet member Nadhim Zahawi, who took the job as Boris Johnson's chancellor in July, only to tell him to "go now" a few weeks later, has today backed the former PM - claiming he has changed since his premiership.
But Sunak supporter Richard Holden cast doubt on this suggestion, arguing that the equivalent number of public declarations had not been made “because they don’t exist”.
ITV News political editor Robert Peston analyses the latest leadership race developments on Sunday evening
As Saturday drew to a close, neither Mr Johnson nor Mr Sunak had yet declared their candidacy, with reports suggesting the pair held talks in the evening to agree on a joint ticket.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said a “ridiculous, chaotic circus” was taking place at the top of the Conservative Party.
He added: “My focus is on the millions of people who are struggling to pay their bills, have now got additional anxieties about their mortgage – I know what it feels like not to be able to pay your bills, that happened to me and my family when I was growing up.
“They are fed up to the back teeth with this.”
Mr Johnson returned to the UK from a holiday as the leadership race heated up, amid growing speculation he planned to run for his old job.The prospect of his return has divided opinion among Conservative MPs, including Mr Johnson's former allies.
He arrived at Gatwick Airport on Saturday morning with his family after breaking off from a holiday in the Dominican Republic following Liz Truss’ dramatic resignation on Thursday.
Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt, who was the first to formally declare her intent to run in the leadership race, is trailing far behind her rivals on public support from MPs with just 22 backers, compared to Mr Johnson’s 45 and Mr Sunak’s 128, according to a ITV News tally.
Setting out her plan to “unite the party and the country” in the Express, she warned the Tories had “let ourselves become distracted by internal disputes”.
Ms Mordaunt used her pitch to stress the need to “make Brexit work”, “focus on the potential of all our citizens” and “defend our Union and its territorial integrity”, pledging her support for reforming the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol.
She insisted she is not seeking the top job for an “easy ride”, and vowed to build a government which “draws from all our best talent”.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Ms Badenoch said her party must remind people that “Conservatives care about the country, not ourselves”.
The International Trade Secretary suggested Mr Sunak would bring a “disciplined approach” to Government, citing his “fiscal conservativism” and stressing that “right now, being able to say no is what we need”.
She said everyone in the party will need to make “sacrifices” to prove to people the Tories can “unite”.
For her, this means refraining from a second leadership bid, she said, while some will have to forsake a job in government under their preferred candidate “so that others can be brought into the tent”.
Mr Johnson’s potential return has divided opinion even among his allies in the parliamentary party, including his former deputy prime minister and foreign secretary Dominic Raab.
Mr Raab said “we cannot go backwards” and pointed out the ex-PM faces an investigation into his actions over partygate.
He backed Mr Sunak, saying earlier he was “very confident” the former chancellor would stand.
Mr Raab added that he was not expecting a deal between Mr Johnson and his former chancellor.
Moments after Mr Johnson landed back in the UK on Saturday, ex-home secretary Priti Patel said he had her support – but his potential bid suffered a setback as former close allies Steve Barclay and Lord Frost urged colleagues to back Mr Sunak.
Mr Johnson’s father Stanley predicted that his son would put his name forward and beat Mr Sunak in a head-to-head contest.
The former PM has so far won the support of six Cabinet ministers: Ben Wallace, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Simon Clarke, Chris Heaton-Harris, Alok Sharma and Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
But his public endorsements fell far short of those for Mr Sunak.
Another supporter of the ex-PM, ex-culture secretary Nadine Dorries, said in a contest between Mr Johnson and Mr Sunak “only Boris is a proven winner”, adding that if the former chancellor was instead chosen, “we would enter unchartered and potentially dangerous waters”.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Ms Dorries added: “Any Tory MP who votes for Rishi Sunak tomorrow will be taking a risk with the future of the party.
“If he is chosen, power would be transferred out of the hands of the people who exercised their choice at the ballot box less than three years ago and placed into their own very privileged and already powerful hands.
“That would be an untenable and undemocratic position for us to be in. If that happens, I have no idea how we would be able to look voters in the eye and deny them a General Election that Labour is screaming out for…
“A Tory Party led into the next Election by anyone other than Boris Johnson would mean the country would be looking into the face of a Socialist government.”
In the same newspaper, the former Brexit secretary and Sunak-backer David Davis said the “root of many” of the Tories’ problems was that the last two prime ministers had chosen Cabinets “almost exclusively from a narrow group of cronies they thought they could dominate”.
How will the next Prime Minister be selected?Tory MPs will vote on Monday, and two candidates will be put forward to the party membership unless one pulls out, with a result being announced on Friday.
Candidates have until 2pm on Monday to secure the 100 nominations, limiting the ballot to a maximum of three candidates.
The public does not have a say in the selection.
Supporters of Mr Johnson believe that if he can make it to the last two, he will win in the final online ballot of party activists with whom he remains hugely popular.
Some MPs have warned they would resign the Tory whip and sit in the Commons as independents if Mr Johnson returned to Downing Street.
Meanwhile, Conservative Party chairman Sir Jake Berry joined the Business Secretary and Johnson-supporter Mr Rees-Mogg in calling for the vote to be decided by members rather than MPs.
The Tory chairman told the Telegraph the party’s future was in the grip of an “existential crisis” and if the Tories believed in democracy, “members cannot be denied a say on who the next leader of the party is”.
He added: “We have seen two Prime Ministers in a row effectively removed from office by MPs despite the fact that they have won the membership.
“I fear that it might be a point where members think ‘what is really the point of being a member of the Conservative party’.
“Politics is not delivered in this country by 650 MPs sat in Parliament; it is delivered by thousands of Conservative councillors up and down the country who deliver elections for the party.”
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