Sajid Javid today joked that a Jeremy Corbyn government would put Tories and journalists “against the wall.”
The Home Secretary made the remark during a Conservative Party leadership debate in the Houses of Parliament.
He told a room of Parliamentary Journalists: “If Labour wins I don’t know who would be first against the wall, Tories or journalists.”
He accused leadership rival Rory Stewart of “spending too much time trying to appeal to labour voters and not the Conservative membership.”
The next Prime Minister will be chosen by Conservative MPs and party members.
The six remaining candidates will be whittled down to two with a series of elimination votes this week.
And the winner will be decided from the final two in a vote of local Tory party members.
Mr Javid said he was confident that Boris Johnson would be one of the final two candidates, but “the question is who else?”
He said the final showdown should be a “robust debate between two credible change candidates” - but that the public didn’t want to see an “Oxford Union debate.”
“I didn’t grow up going to debating clubs at university,” he said.
“I didn’t go to top elite schools. I didn’t have that chance, I didn’t have the opportunity. But I’m trying to communicate in the best way that I can. So I may be the most confident debater, I may not be the best speaker at times, but I think people want to see someone who is honest.
He added: “I think people want to see someone who has experienced business at the rough end.”
He said he would not vote Remain again if there was a second referendum on Brexit .
He said: “I’d vote Leave because we cannot as a country keep having this debate again and again and again.”
Mr Javid said he would trust Boris Johnson to run the country - and added that if he were to win the election, he would give the former Foreign Secretary a job in his cabinet.
He joked: “I might not give him foreign secretary but I might give him a job in my cabinet.”
Asked about the revelations of historic drug use that rocked rival Michael Gove’s campaign, he said: “I didn’t take any drugs. And part of the reason is that I grew up on a street that was part of the local drugs trade.
“I saw the impact of drugs growing up. I would be very hesitant to do anything [in office] that might increase drug use.”
