Senior Conservatives have expressed alarm that the leadership contest could become unmanageable and chaotic after a 13th candidate, Sam Gyimah, entered the race.
At least four other MPs are believed to be considering joining the fray next week, leading one minister to describe some of the hopefuls as “vanity candidates”.
The 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers, which will set the rules and run the contest, is expected to meet on Tuesday, and the rules are due to be agreed by the party board on Wednesday. Sir Graham Brady has stood down as the committee’s chair and is mulling running for the leadership himself.
Members of the committee’s executive told the Guardian they believed there was a clear case for a rule change. “I favour a proposer, seconder and 10 supporters. The alternative is a large-scale cull after the first ballot,” one committee member said.
MPs will begin voting after Theresa May steps down on Friday. In past contests, in each round the candidate with the fewest votes dropped out. The committee has previously held bi-weekly votes and is now considering holding votes daily.
Michael Gove
The environment secretary is to pitch himself as a “unity candidate” capable of attracting leavers and remainers, as he formally declared his candidacy saying: “I believe that I’m ready to unite the Conservative and Unionist party, ready to deliver Brexit and ready to lead this great country.” But robust Brexiters in particular dislike the fact that he stayed loyal even in the final days of the crumbling May regime.
Sam Gyimah
The former universities minister is calling for a 'final say on the Brexit deal' as the only way to break the parliamentary deadlock. Gyimah is the only candidate offering a second referendum on Brexit, saying 'There is a wide range of candidates out there but there is a very narrow set of views on Brexit being discussed'.
Matt Hancock
The health secretary remains a relative outsider, but the longer the race goes on, the more he gains ground for the seemingly basic virtues of being apparently competent and broadly similar to a normal human being, albeit a particularly energetic one. A concerted effort would probably require an image consultant.
Mark Harper
The former immigration minister and chief whip was behind the controversial 'go-home' vans when working under Theresa May at the Home Office. He resigned as immigration minister in 2014after it emerged he was employing a cleaner who did not have permission to work in the UK. He later served as David Cameron’s chief whip. But he has not served in Theresa May’s government and has, therefore, sought to cast himself as the candidate who offers 'fresh thinking.
Jeremy Hunt
Fears that the foreign secretary would be another overly woolly compromise choice were hardly assuaged when after a set-piece speech he seemed unable to outline why his brand of Conservatism might appeal to voters. Hunt has been backed by Liam Fox.
Sajid Javid
The home secretary still has the same weaknesses: he is an uninspiring speaker and some worry he is too fond of headline-grabbing, illiberal political gestures. But he is almost as ubiquitous as Liz Truss, and clearly believes this is his time.
Boris Johnson
The out-and-out favourite, so popular with the Tory grassroots that it would be hard for MPs to not make Johnson one of the final two. He has been relatively quiet recently, beyond his regular Telegraph column, but this is very deliberate.
Andrea Leadsom
The former House of Commons leader, who left Theresa May as the last candidate standing when she pulled out of the previous leadership race in 2016, has decided to have another tilt at the top job, saying she has the “experience and confidence” to “lead this country into a brighter future”. But even with her staunch Brexiter tendencies, she would be seen as an outsider.
Esther McVey
The former work and pensions secretary, who quit last year over May’s Brexit plans, has launched her own in-party campaign group/leadership vehicle called Blue Collar Conservatism, promising to make the party more amenable to voters in deprived communities – mainly through a promise to deliver a strong Brexit and policies such as diverting much of the foreign aid budget to schools and police.
Dominic Raab
Few things say “would-be leader in waiting” like a kitchen photoshoot with your spouse, and the former Brexit secretary duly obliged with this imageawash with tasteful pastel hues. He formally launched his bid in the Mail on Sunday. Among the more core constituency of Conservative MPs, Raab has been pushing hard, as has his semi-official “Ready for Raab” Twitter feed.
Rory Stewart
The cabinet’s most recent arrival – Mordaunt’s promotion to defence led to Stewart becoming international development secretary – certainly has the necessary ambition and self-belief, plus a privileged if unorthodox backstory covering Eton, Oxford, a senior role in postwar Iraq and a bestselling book about walking across Afghanistan. He remains an outsider, not least because of his remain tendencies and slightly 2010 view of compassionate Conservatism. He's become a social media darling and been endorsed by Ken Clarke, but his reputation as 'Florence of Belgravia' may hinder him.
And those not in the running
Sir Graham Brady, Penny Mordaunt and James Brokenshire are yet to declare their intentions. Liz Truss and Amber Rudd have ruled themselves out.
Among other senior figures not expected to run are Brandon Lewis, Chris Grayling and Philip Hammond. Gavin Williamson’s recent sacking after the Huawei leak inquiry will also surely rule him out as an option this time around.
James Cleverly and Kit Malthouse withdrew from the contest.
Several of the leading candidates, many of whom have between 30 to 40 endorsements, are known to favour a rule change, believing it could halve the number of opponents.
The universities minister, Chris Skidmore, who has backed Sajid Javid, tweeted: “This ‘vanity candidate’ phenomenon is becoming a joke – I hope the 1922 Committee bring in new rules so that candidates have to be nominated by a fixed proportion of the parliamentary party.”
The former trade minister Greg Hands joked on Twitter that he “might have the casting vote” given the large number of candidates.
The 13 in the running are Javid, Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Jeremy Hunt, Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey, Rory Stewart, James Cleverly, Mark Harper, Kit Malthouse and Gyimah.
Others who may still announce they will run include Brady, Penny Mordaunt, Priti Patel, Jesse Norman and Steve Baker. Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, have not ruled themselves out. Should all of these run, it would take the number of candidates to 20.
In a joint opinion piece with the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, Patel wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that candidates who had minimal support should realise they did not have time to learn on the job.
“Those who have thrown their hats into the ring, with minimum support but imbued with an enormous sense of self-worth, need to think a little more carefully,” the piece said.
Over the weekend some of the leadership candidates set out their plans for resolving the Brexit crisis. Leadsom, the former leader of the Commons, said she would not attempt to renegotiate May’s Brexit deal and instead would pursue a managed no deal.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show she would pass legislation to protect EU citizens but also attempt to secure side deals based on the withdrawal agreement to keep goods moving across borders – a suggestion the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, has explicitly ruled out.
She said she believed “the withdrawal agreement is dead, that we can’t reopen the withdrawal agreement bill and the UK parliament won’t vote for it. Even if, to use the common parlance, we were to leave with no deal, there would be arrangements in place. What I’m suggesting is making an offer to the EU for things that were already agreed in the withdrawal agreement, that will enable us to leave with a managed exit.”
Barnier has previously said there cannot be “mini-deals” if the UK crashes out of the bloc.
Leadsom dismissed the possibility of parliament preventing a no-deal departure, saying she believed a prime minister pursuing a “managed exit” and guaranteeing citizens’ rights would not lose a confidence vote.
Javid, speaking later on the same programme, said he would not want to extend Brexit beyond the end of October but would not ignore parliament if it forced his hand. “I want to leave with a deal but if I have to choose between no deal and no Brexit I would pick no deal,” he said.
Asked if he would contemplate another extension, he said: “That’s not something I would do, but we are a parliamentary democracy … so if it’s the law, I would not break the law.”
Sources close to Gove, the environment secretary, suggested he was prepared to delay Brexit until the end of next year rather than leave without a deal on 31 October.
Hancock wrote to colleagues on Sunday setting out plans to renegotiate the Brexit deal and warning that leaving without a deal on 31 October was unrealistic because of the likelihood of it being blocked by parliament. He said no deal was |not a policy choice available to the next prime minister”.
Several candidates received high-profile endorsements: Johnson from Liz Truss, the chief secretary to the Treasury, and Stewart from David Gauke, the justice secretary, and the Tory grandee Ken Clarke.
Gyimah is the only candidate to have pledged to offer a second EU referendum. He said the nationwide “broad sweep of opinion” on how the UK should move forward with Brexit was not being reflected in the Tory leadership contest.
