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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Andrew Sparrow and Kevin Rawlinson

Tory leadership: deputy prime minister backs Rory Stewart - as it happened

Boris Johnson being photographed leaving home this morning.
Boris Johnson being photographed leaving home this morning. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Closing summary

We’re going to close down this live blog now. Thanks for reading and commenting. Here’s a summary of the days’ events.

  • The Tory leadership candidates – with the exception of Boris Johnson – faced lobby journalists at a hustings. You can read a comprehensive summary of that here.
  • Rory Stewart secured the backing of the de facto deputy prime minister, David Lidington. The move was a major boost to Stewart’s campaign and suggests he may remain in the running beyond the next vote.
  • The other leadership candidates were warned that they risk squandering the Tories reputation for fiscal responsibility. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, said he was disappointed that only Rory Stewart had signed his pledge to commit to keeping the national debt falling every year if they become prime minister. David Gauke, who is backing Rory Stewart, also said some of the policy promises made by Boris Johnson could cause public borrowing to soar.
  • Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, accused his party of being afraid to make the case for remaining in the EU. “We talk about the evils of no-deal till we’re blue in the face, because we’re still scared to tell the truth about Europe,” he said.

If you’d like to read yet more, my colleagues Rowena Mason and Jessica Elgot have the full story:

Alyn Smith, the Scottish National party MEP, has apologised unreservedly to the chairman of the Brexit party and donated an undisclosed sum to the military charity, Help for Heroes, after claiming the Brexit party was “a shell company that’s a money laundering front”.

Richard Tice, the chairman and co-founder of the Brexit party, demanded a retraction after Smith made the remarks live on Sky News following the European election earlier this month, in which the Brexit party won a Scottish regional seat.

Smith initially refused to back down, leading Tice to threaten libel action. Smith has now withdrawn his remarks and paid “significantly” towards Tice’s legal costs, according to the Brexit party.

In a statement issued by his solicitors, Smith said:

On 27 May 2019, I was interviewed by Sky News. In that interview, I stated in the context of political donations that the Brexit party is a ‘shell company that’s a money laundering front’.

Its chairman, Richard Tice, is concerned by implication this allegation related to him, although that was not my intention. Having reflected upon this following a complaint from Mr Tice, I apologise unreservedly to him and withdraw my allegation.

I am happy to state clearly that I do not have any evidence to support such an allegation. I spoke in the heat of the moment and I am happy to set the record straight. I have agreed to pay a sum in damages to the Help for Heroes charity and I have agreed to pay legal costs.

Tice said he was pleased Smith had withdrawn his “wholly unfounded and damaging allegations”, adding:

People are entitled to take a different view of Brexit and I respect their right to do so. But I will not hesitate to take action against those who make false claims about the Brexit party and, by implication, those of us who run it.

Updated

Writing for the Guardian this evening, the Labour MP Stella Creasy has launched a vehement attack on the Parliamentary authorities, saying they are forcing her to choose between being an MP and being a mother.

Stewart ends on a question about prison reform. He calls prisons “one of the great hidden scars on our country”. He says that, compared to other state institutions – such as schools and hospitals, relatively few people have any experience of prisons.

He says you “protect the public by running a decent, safe and humane prison” in which people can receive the necessary education and mental health treatment they need to prevent recidivism.

Asked about a citizens’ assembly, Stewart says Parliament is sovereign. But, if it gets stuck again, a “grand jury of citizens” could be given three weeks to look at the task and bring back recommendations to Parliament.

Addressing a question about potentially changing the constitution of the Tory party, Stewart says the membership is its lifeblood and declares himself jealous of Jeremy Corbyn because he has increased the Labour party’s membership.

He says there was an assumption the major parties were in a managed decline but that Corbyn “turned it all around” by talking about things he believed in. He says he wants to rebuild the Tory party by being “proud to be Conservatives”.

Stewart is asked to condemn the exclusion of Sajid Javid from the state dinner with Donald Trump, as well as Jeremy Hunt for his support for the US president’s racially charged criticism of Sadiq Khan.

He refers to a previous question from a young man who had said he didn’t feel Stewart was able to engage with him in a meaningful way. Stewart says he needs to get better at connecting with people who do not speak the same way he does.

Earlier, Stewart had tweeted about the tweet at the heart of the Hunt issue:

Updated

Stewart is asked about calling a second Brexit referendum on the basis that the first was run in a fundamentally dishonest fashion.

He says he was one of the many who was surprised by the result and recognises that, since then, many people have come to support a second vote. This would not achieve what its proponents believe it would, he says.

Asked about honesty in the campaign, he says it’s important but this the “sea in which we swim” as politicians. Stewart says that, regardless of the information people are given, each of them has an equal right to choose how they vote.

Stewart says that means compromise is necessary – and such cannot be achieved by either the remain or hard Brexit camps.

Asked what he’d to do bring back into the fold those Tory supporters who have voted for the Brexit party. He says 70% of those people didn’t vote that way because they supported the party but because they wanted to signal that they wanted the Brexit process to be over with.

The delays, he says, suit the pro-remain and pro-hard Brexit camps because they strengthen the possibility of one or the other coming about eventually. The Brexit deal on the table, he says, is the “only one out there”.

He says the candidates who believe they’ll go back to the EU and get a better one will only bring about further delay. He also says it’s pointless to consider whether any route other than the parliamentary one would be legal or constitutional way of pushing through Brexit.

Stewart is asked what he would do to restore the UK’s prestige on the world stage. He says, if the country wants it, it has to demonstrate it and that it has fallen into the trap of assuming that asserting greatness achieves it.

We’ve got to be a serious country ... [that] means conducting yourself with realism, with humility and doing what you say.

Asked about his position on adult social care, Stewart tells the audience there are certain issues about which candidates are advised not to talk. One of those is adult social care, for which he has proposed greater funding. Every time he does so, he says, he gains more support.

Addressing the question directly, he says that how we look after the most vulnerable in society is the measure by which we will be judged.

Stewart is now taking questions from the audience. He’s asked if he’ll commit to gender-parity in his government.

“It’s a really good challenge,” he says, but adds he cannot totally agree. He says the cabinet should have more women but that they need to be the right people. First, he says, he needs to get more women elected as members of parliament so that he has the pool of talent from which to choose.

Stewart is acknowledging the backing of both Lidington and Gauke and has described the positive effect the latter has had on his career in government. He also points out the MP for East Renfrewshire, Paul Masterton, who is present in the audience.

Stewart tells the audience occupying the centre ground is nothing to be ashamed of and that the country needs a politician who’ll speak honestly to them about the difficulties ahead. And he tells them the Tory party needs to address issues such as the environment.

Lidington says Stewart’s campaigning style has demonstrated there are “no no-go areas” for the Conservative party.

Then he hands over to Stewart, who says he was beginning to get depressed about British politics. He says that, until recently, hefelt powerless and that nothing he tried to achieve in government ever got done.

Updated

David Lidington is on stage at Rory Stewart’s rally in London. He tells the audience he thinks there’s a “yearning in this country for political leaders who tell it straight to people” and who are honest about the difficulties ahead.

Senior Tory backs Rory Stewart

David Lidington, the Cabinet Office secretary and Theresa May’s de facto deputy, has switched to backing Rory Stewart for the Conservative party leadership. He had previously supported Matt Hancock, who pulled out of the race last week.

Stewart’s spokesman says:

Rory is incredibly proud to have the support of David Lidington – the deputy prime minister. A huge vote of confidence not just in Rory’s campaign, but in his ability to deliver as prime minister

Updated

Extracts from Tom Watson's Brexit speech

Tom Watson’s Brexit speech this morning, which we previewed yesterday, was overshadowed by the Tory leadership hustings. But I’ve now had a chance to read the text, and here are three extracts.

  • Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said his party had been afraid to make the case for remaining in the EU. He said:

We talk about the evils of no-deal till we’re blue in the face, because we’re still scared to tell the truth about Europe.

We’re more comfortable warning of an ineffable catastrophe, because we’re hard-wired to be unable to say the words that I’ve come here this morning to say:

The European Union is not something to apologise for. It is a good thing. It is Good with a capital G.

An enduring, deep, benevolent collaboration between sovereign states unique in the history of the world.

It produced a lasting peace from the ashes of war.

It produced prosperity where there had been deprivation.

It produced transnational partnership where once there was suspicion and division.

It’s not perfect, but what large institution is?

The core values of the EU are internationalism. Solidarity. Freedom.

Those are British values. And they’re Labour values.

I’m a European democratic socialist. I don’t go along with the EU despite being a socialist, I embrace the EU because I am a socialist.

Democratic socialism is achieving common causes by the strength of collective endeavour. That’s what Europe is.

  • He cited Shakespeare as an example of someone who was profoundly English and European.

Probably the most important Englishman who ever lived was William Shakespeare. A man of the Midlands, like me, whose transcendent imagination was as broadly and deeply European as it was English ...

One only needs look at where the plays took place: Rome, Athens, Venice, Padua, Milan, Cyprus, Navarra, Messina, Vienna, Denmark, the Balkans, Sicily. And he wasn’t just using places he’d visited as handy material. He never left the UK.

He conceived and realised these settings because being European was central to his sense of who he was, and what it meant to be English.

Erasmus and Plutarch loomed as large in his imagination as did Chaucer and Sidney. Mediaeval London was a bustling melting pot of migrants from all over the world. The greatest Englishman, 400 years ago, was wholly, deeply European.

  • He said Labour should champion the idea of holding a second referendum.

The notion that it’s in some way undemocractic to let the people put an end to this crisis because, after three years, parliament and government cannot, is absurd.

And if you want Brexit, and you believe there is still a majority for it in the UK, then a public vote will break the deadlock and deliver the Brexit you want.

Whereas if many people have changed their minds and no longer want Brexit now that they have more information about what it means, how is it undemocratic to give them the chance to express that three years on and with the country in limbo?

Labour is the party of democracy - so we must ask the people ...

Only a public vote can break this deadlock, but we will only achieve this if Labour fights for it and champions it. We must do that – in Parliament and around the country. Labour must make the positive case.

That’s all from me for tonight.

My colleague Kevin Rawlinson is taking over now.

Tom Watson.
Tom Watson. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock

At the press gallery hustings this morning Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, asked all of the Tory leadership candidates who were there if they would accept the definition of a hard border in Ireland (which the government has promised to avoid) set out in the joint report of December 2017. Dominic Raab said he probably would not accept it, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt and Rory Stewart generally said they would accept it, and Sajid Javid was evasive.

In a blog Peston explains why he thinks this matters.

For what it is worth, I assume [Boris] Johnson - if he had deigned to turn up - would have agreed with Raab.

What flows from all this?

That in substance Gove, Hunt and Stewart would struggle to get Brexit approved by MPs, because the DUP and ERG Brexiters will struggle to understand why the backstop isn’t as toxic as it ever was.

And Johnson and Raab would probably be told by Whitehall if they want to change the hard border definition they can whistle for it - and that what they really want is a no-deal Brexit.

And Javid is yet to make this ultimate Hobson’s Choice.

Oh the toxic legacy bequeathed by May to her successor, party and country.

Steve Baker, the Tory Brexiter, deputy chairman of the European Research Group, and a supporter of Boris Johnson’s, has posted a Twitter thread saying that it is not just the backstop that is unacceptable to him, but the entire withdrawal agreement (WA).

It starts here.

And here are two of his key tweets.

This illustrates just how hard it will be for Johnson to preserve a coalition that satisfies both Baker and remain-voting supporters of Theresa May’s deal like Matt Hancock.

Several readers have been asking below the lines what happens if two candidates come joint last in the Tory leadership ballot tomorrow.

This did happen on the first ballot in 2001, when Michael Ancram and David Davis were joint last in the first ballot. There was no provision for this in the rules, and so the ballot was rerun two days later, when Davis beat Ancram by one vote.

But, according to this Commons library note (pdf) on Conservative leadership elections (more helpful than the CCHQ press office, which could not give me an answer), rule 26 now makes provision for this event. It says that if there is a tie, the ballot will be rerun. If there is another tie among the candidates with the least votes, they are both/all eliminated.

The Conservative 1922 Committee has also introduced, for this contest, a 33-vote threshold for the second ballot. Not just the candidate coming last, but any candidate getting fewer than 33 votes will be eliminated. That increases the chances of candidates being eliminated tomorrow without the need for a rerun.

In the editor’s reply slot in today’s Evening Standard, George Osborne, the Tory former chancellor, said that if Boris Johnson became PM, he would need to reach out to socially liberal voters. Osborne explained:

I remember as a young Tory aide attending a post-mortem about the 1997 general election landslide defeat. To my amazement, the Conservatives MPs decided that they’d lost because too many people had voted for the then Referendum party (a precursor to today’s Brexit party).

I gingerly raised my hand, and observed that I thought the Tories had lost because too many people had voted for Tony Blair.

The biggest threat to Conservative MPs comes from Labour and the Liberal Democrats — the loss of just a handful of seats to the latter would eject them from office. Boris Johnson (assuming he wins the leadership campaign) will need to reach out and reassure millions of socially liberal, urban voters who backed remain.

If he doesn’t he’ll have even less time in Downing Street than Theresa May.

Philip Hammond has said he held extensive talks over the protests in Hong Kong with Chinese vice premier Hu Chunhua, as part of discussions over economic ties between Britain and China.

Although not going into detail on the nature of the talks, the chancellor said the “difficult subject” had been broached after protests in the former British colony continued into a second week. He told journalists:

This dialogue today is primarily about trade and investment but of course the point of having a close partnership is that we can also talk about more difficult subjects, we had a negotiating meeting last night, I’ve already raised the issue of Hong Kong and we’ve had an extensive discussion about it.

We’re pleased that the Hong Kong authorities have paused their proposed legislative changes and are going to take time to talk to people, to consult more widely, and to try to build a consensus around the changes that they’re proposing and to ensure that the confidence of business and citizens in Hong Kong is maintained.

Speaking at a joint summit with vice premier Hu in the City of London, he also warned that Britain was “very vulnerable” in the US-China trade war currently raging between Washington and Beijing.

Britain is a very open trading economy. We’re very vulnerable to anything that impacts on global trade, global economic growth.

I hope that when the two presidents [Donald Trump and Xi Jinping] meet in Japan in a few days time we may hopefully see some significant progress.

China’s vice premier Hu Chunhua speaking next to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, at a joint news conference in London.
China’s vice premier Hu Chunhua speaking next to the chancellor, Philip Hammond, at a joint news conference in London. Photograph: POOL/Reuters

Dame Caroline Spelman, the Conservative MP who backed Matt Hancock last week, is now supporting Rory Stewart.

Updated

Downing Street told journalists this afternoon that Theresa May would not have retweeted Katy Hopkins’ comments about “Londonistan”, as President Donald Trump has done. The prime minister’s spokesman said:

The prime minister would not retweet Katy Hopkins, nor use that language.

The prime minister agrees with the mayor that knife violence should have no place in London or anywhere else in our country.

Asked whether May watched the Channel 4 leadership debate last night, the spokesman added “she did not, she was doing box work”.

Tory reputation for fiscal responsibility at risk from Johnson and other candidates, says Hammond

Last week Philip Hammond, the chancellor, wrote an open letter to all the Conservative leadership candidates challenging them all to commit to keeping the national debt falling every year if they become PM.

Here is the key extract from the letter.

When we took office in 2010, we inherited the largest deficit in peacetime history, at 9.9% of GDP. Thanks to sound economic policy and the hard work of the British people, our deficit is down to a more manageable level of 1.1%. However, the years of high deficits have taken a toll on our national debt, which rose from around 35% of GDP before the financial crisis to a peak of over 85% in 2016-17, its highest level in fifty years. Thankfully, our debt is now falling sustainably for the first time in a generation. As we look forward, it is vital that we do not undo these achievements by making unfunded commitments that would mean debt rising again; leave the economy vulnerable to shocks; burden future generations and waste billions on additional interest payments.

If we do not commit to getting our debt down after a nine-year run of uninterrupted economic growth, how can we demonstrate a dividing line between the fiscal responsibility of our party and the reckless promises of John McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn?

I therefore ask you, as a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative party, to pledge that if you are the next prime minister your government will, at a minimum, have a clear commitment to keeping our national debt falling every year, and to maintain the current limit of the deficit at 2% of GDP at least through 2021-22.

In his letter Hammond also said that, if candidates did make this pledge, they would lose the chance to raise spending or cut taxes. He explained:

This pledge does not mean that there is no extra money to spend. As I said at the spring statement, if we can avoid major economic shocks and if we leave the EU in a smooth and orderly way, an incoming prime minister will have genuine choices about how to use the available borrowing capacity implied by these fiscal commitments: increased spending on public services, capital investment in Britain’s future prosperity, cutting taxes or more rapidly reducing the national debt. On the current OBR forecast, these commitments would mean, after allowing for the expected reclassification by the ONS of student debt, around £15bn of headroom available in 2020-21; £19bn in 2021-22; £21bn in 2022-23; and £25bn in 2023-24, though a prudent administration would not use all the available borrowing capacity given the potential for forecast revisions.

Today, at an event in the City of London, Hammond said said the Tory leadership candidates were at risk of squandering the party’s reputation for fiscal responsibility. Only Rory Stewart had agreed to honour the pledge, he said.

It is a disappointment to me that only one of the candidates remaining in the race, Rory Stewart, has actually signed up to that pledge.

I would urge the other candidates to do so, to reassure the public that our hard-won reputation for fiscal responsibility is not going to be squandered during the course of this competition.

Hammond’s comment seemed to be aimed at Boris Johnson, the clear favourite, in particular. David Gauke, the justice secretary, made a similar point on Twitter this morning. (See 10.33am.)

The subject did come up at the hustings. Michael Gove said he would sign the pledge. (See 12.53pm.) But Jeremy Hunt refused. Hunt said he did want debt to fall as a a proportion of GDP over the economic cycle, but he said he would not commit to reducing it every year in case he needed to increase borrowing in a recession.

Press gallery hustings - Verdict

The press gallery hustings this morning were lively and interesting, and covered a very wide range of topics, but it is hard to see them making any impact on the campaign. The 80-odd journalists did not emerge with a strong, collective sense that any single candidate had performed particularly well or badly, and the entire event was off-camera anyway, and so you are not going to see it on TV. But here’s a summary of how each candidate performed, in order of their appearance.

Rory Stewart: Stewart has emerged as the best candidate in the contest for non-Tories (a category that probably includes a majority of lobby journalists) and he got good reviews from the Channel 4 debate last night. But today he may have lost ground with that constituency a bit. His greatest strength has been his willingness to point out the transparent flaws in the Brexit plans proposed by all his rivals, but today his own Brexit plan (try again for Theresa May’s deal, and if not use a citizens’ assembly to find a solution) sounded almost as flaky. His refusal to say if he would vote remain or leave in another referendum sounded feeble (see 11.25am), and he seems to have gone back on what he said last week about being willing to “bring down” a Boris Johnson government committed to no-deal. (See 11.29am.) He has also had to clear up what he said about President Trump. (See 2.24pm.) However, on reducing the north/south divide, he was the most plausible of all the candidates, stressing the importance of transport above all else.

Sajid Javid: In terms of background, if not in terms of politics, Javid is easily the most distinctive candidate in the contest and his account of why he went into banking (see 2.06pm) was easily one of the most memorable moments of the hustings.

Jeremy Hunt: Hunt is supposed to be one of the moderate contenders in the campaign, and so it was surprising that, of all the five candidates, he was most willing to endorse what President Trump said about Sadiq Khan. Like Rory Stewart, he has been in retreat on this since the hustings were over. (See 2.43pm.) This may make him look like a bit of an idiot to the media, although Tory MPs, and party members, may well take a different view about Khan-bashing. Hunt was particularly unconvincing in the hustings when asked about the impact of Brexit on the UK’s standing in the world, and the reaction of EU leaders to his speech at the Tory conference comparing the EU to the USSR, but he did demonstrate how to perform an effective clean-hands tackle when he was asked if he blamed Boris Johnson for the continuing incarceration of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. He did not want to reply, he said - because everyone makes mistakes.

Dominic Raab: Raab was not particularly convincing when trying to defend his record as Brexit secretary (see this Twitter thread from the Telegraph’s James Crisp for the counter view) and Raab’s claim that citizens’ assemblies are some sort of Venezuelan anti-democratic abomination (see 12.38pm) is just bizarre. (They have used them in Ireland too.) But he was the only candidate firmly promising tax cuts in an emergency Brexit budget, regardless of whether or not the UK was heading for a no-deal. (See 12.32pm.) That may go down well with Tory voters.

Michael Gove: Gove was the only candidate who managed to get a laugh at the hustings, and his treatment of Owen Bennett, the journalist who has written the biography with the cocaine revelation that nearly derailed his campaign, was gracious. He was reluctant to say any more about his use of drugs, his account of his critique of the Good Friday agreement was partial (in fact, he was so hostile to the GFA he compared it to appeasement), but he provided one of the smartest answers to the Trump question. (See 12.54pm.)

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, is also having to clarify the response he gave at the press gallery hustings to a question about President Trump’s tweet attacking the London mayor Sadiq Khan. These are from Sayeeda Warsi, the former chair of the Conservative party.

To be fair to Hunt, the answer he gave at the hustings sounded like an endorsement of Trump’s Twitter message (that London needed a new mayor because Khan was a “disaster) not Katie Hopkins’s “Londonistan” reference.

Jeremy Hunt returning to his home following a run this morning.
Jeremy Hunt returning to his home following a run this morning. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Updated

At the Tory leadership hustings all the candidates were asked about President Trump’s decision to retweet a Katie Hopkins tweet approvingly, adding a message saying Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, has been a disaster.

In his reply Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, said that as a former diplomat he thought it was best to make criticisms of your allies in private. He implied that he agreed with Trump’s criticisms of Khan’s record as London mayor, but thought he was wrong to tweet about it. (See 11.34am.)

But after the hustings Stewart posted this on Twitter - disowning the “Khan’s Londonistan” line used by Hopkins.

Rory Stewart (left) and Michael Gove talking at the Houses of Parliament today.
Rory Stewart (left) and Michael Gove talking at the Houses of Parliament today. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters

Updated

Sajid Javid says he went into banking because it's 'much more meritocratic'

One of the most interesting lines in the hustings came when Sajid Javid, the home secretary, said that he went into banking because it was more meritocratic than other professions open to him. Javid was responding a question about why Rory Stewart seemed to be the candidate with the most momentum.

Javid started by saying that he did not have an elite education, like Rory Stewart. He was not a member of a debating society at Oxford. But he was getting better as a communicator, he said. He went on:

I might not be the most confident debater, I might not be the most confident speaker. But I think what people want to see is someone who is genuine, who is honest, who has answers and experience of life, real life, life in business.

The reason I got into banking, one of the reasons, is because for a young Asian like me, most Asians, they go into jobs that you need to take an exam for, like chartered accountant, dentist - it’s not because that’s what their parents think is the only thing open to them - the reason that happens is because their parents feel that discrimination is so inevitable in professions where you don’t have to take exams that the best way to get in is to have a piece of paper [showing you are qualified for the job]. So I did banking because it’s much more meritocratic.

Javid also said he thought Stewart’s problem was that he was spending too much time appealing to Labour voters rather than Conservative votes. He also said the public did not want to see a competition between Boris Johnson and Stewart, two people who both went to the country’s most elite school (Eton).

Sajid Javid leaving his London home this morning.
Sajid Javid leaving his London home this morning. Photograph: Luke Dray/Getty Images

Updated

Rory Stewart, Sajid Javid and Dominic Raab all say they think they have enough votes to stay in Tory leadership contest

And here’s another story from the hustings, filed by the Press Association.

Tory leadership hopefuls Rory Stewart and Sajid Javid believe they have the required number of supporters to survive Tuesday’s second round of voting.

Stewart managed to secure just 19 votes in the first ballot and Javid had 23 - both short of the 33 required to stay in the race after the second vote.

But the pair told journalists at a special hustings in Westminster that they were confident of remaining in the contest to be the next prime minister.

They are a long way short of frontrunner Boris Johnson, who picked up 114 votes last week and has since been boosted by the support of former leadership contender Matt Hancock.

At the hustings, Stewart said he had the necessary 33 backers to make it through the second round of voting in the contest “if they do what they say”.

The international development secretary suggested he was the one to beat Johnson - and accused the former foreign secretary of making different promises to different MPs.

“Who is going to be nimble enough, who has the style, who has the approach, who has the way of dealing with the public... I don’t think the answer is going to be pre-scripted answers,” he said.

Javid, the home secretary, said he was “extremely confident” of getting the required 33 votes.

“I think there is a growing feeling in the party that when we get to the final two we should have a robust debate between two credible change candidates,” he said.

“If we don’t get change, people will vote for change in the form of Jeremy Corbyn.”

Dominic Raab also said he thought he would have enough votes to stay in the contest.

Any candidate getting fewer than 33 votes in the ballot tomorrow will have to drop out. But even if they all hit this threshold, the candidate who comes last will be eliminated anyway.

Updated

Here is my colleague Peter Walker’s story about what the Tory election candidates had to say at the press gallery hustings about Donald Trump.

And here is how is story starts.

Jeremy Hunt has vigorously defended Donald Trump for quoting the far-right commentator Katie Hopkins in an attack on the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, as Downing Street declined to condemn the US president’s words.

The foreign secretary said that while he would not have used the same words as Trump he would “150% agree” with the overall sentiment.

In contrast, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said the US president should “stick to domestic politics”.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said the stance of Hunt and No 10 were “shocking” and showed the Conservative party had a serious problem of Islamophobia.

Q: Do you have any regrets about how Brexit has unfolded, and your role in it?

Gove says triggering article 50 without a clear plan was a mistake.

During the referendum campaign he said the UK should not trigger article 50 prematurely.

He says he urged Theresa May to adopt a different view of Brexit. She disagreed.

But all the leadership candidates who resigned over May’s deal ended up voting for it on 29 March (the third vote on the agreement).

He says his department is the best prepared for no-deal.

Gove ends by joking that he looks forward to seeing us all weekly (ie, at his prime ministerial press conferences).

And that’s it.

I will post reaction and a summary soon.

Q: How would you respond to claims you are not popular with the uncommitted voters the Tories need to win over?

Gove says when he took charge of Vote Leave he was behind. But he led the campaign, took on the arguments and won.

And he says Robert Hayward, the Tory pollster, has highlighted polling showing he and Jeremy Hunt could win over Lib Dem voters.

Q: Do you think dirty tricks were involved in the cocaine story?

Gove says a brilliant journalist got a story.

Q: Are you on speaking terms with David Cameron?

Gove says Cameron is in private life now. He says he will not comment on their relationship. But he is looking forward to reading Cameron’s book. He says the public needs to hear more from Cameron.

Q: Would you have monthly press conferences as PM?

Why so few, says Gove.

Q: Weekly?

Why not?

Q; What would you do about Jeremy Corbyn?

Gove says he would fight against Corbyn on behalf of the dispossessed. He says Corbyn is more happy speaking up on behalf of Iran than on behalf of the working class.

Q: Given how Brexit has turned out, do you think it would have been better if you had lost?

Gove says he never thinks it is good to lose a campaign he is involved in.

Q: What do you think of the fact you are not now seen as proper Brexiter by some?

Gove says he discussed this with his mum recently. She said, given all he has done, of course he was a proper Brexiter. He thinks his mum knows best.

Q: How would you reduce the wealth gap between the north and the south?

Gove says he would improve transport infrastructure in the north, midlands and south west.

And he would also ensure that people can retrain in mid-career.

Q: Apart from cocaine, have you taken any other illegal drugs?

Gove says he has already answered questions on this.

Q: Three years ago you thought Boris Johnson was not fit to be PM. What has he done in the last three years to change your mind?

Gove says he thinks Johnson would be a good PM, but that he would be a better one.

Q: What did you think of President Trump’s anti-Khan tweet?

Gove says it is always a mistake to retweet something from Katie Hopkins.

Gove says one of his first trips as PM would be a visit to Angela Merkel in Berlin.

Q: [From Owen Bennett, who has written the Gove biography with the cocaine revelation] What do you say to the allegation that, in pursuing Brexit, you are putting the interests of the Aberdeen fishing industry above the interests of the City?

Gove congratulates Bennett on his book. He jokes about getting a share of the royalties.

He says it is not just Aberdeen that is opposed to the CFP; it is the whole country.

Q: Will you sign up to Philip Hammond’s pledge to keep debt falling if you become PM?

Yes, says Gove.

Q: What do you think of the suggestion that Johnson supporters might vote to keep you off the final ballot?

Gove says the idea that Tory MPs are duplicitous is wholly new one to him.

This gets probably the first laugh of the session.

Q: Do you still think the Good Friday agreement was a mistake?

Gove says he was critical of the way the Blair government approached the peace process. But he is glad for what the peace process has achieved.

Q: What do you say to Brexiter who think Brexit must happen by 31 October because the referendum trumps parliament?

Gove says we live in a parliamentary democracy, and we must accept that.

Q: Would you attempt to change the definition of a hard border in the joint report of December 2017?

No, says Gove. He says he would look for other ways of avoiding the backstop. He thinks there is no candidate in the race who understands the politics of Ireland better than he does.

Q: Why have you changed your approach to Boris Johnson?

Gove says he has won increased support over this weekend.

The Tories need someone who can be PM from day one. He thinks he is pre-eminently qualified, he says.

Updated

Michael Gove at the press gallery hustings

Michael Gove is now speaking.

He starts by saying how nice it is to address the 1922 Committee - only more handsome, and better dressed.

He says the party needs someone who believes in Brexit and who can deliver it.

And he says whoever wins will face Jeremy Corbyn at PMQs every Wednesday. He is the one best placed to “strike fear” into Corbyn’s heart.

Q: Will you commit to monthly press conferences if you become PM?

Absolutely, says Raab. What could be more fun than this?

Q: You says Michel Barnier said you were brave enough to go to the EU and tell them things that they had never heard before. But the documentary you refer to shows Barnier saying you were saying something that was not UK policy, and you then backed down.

Raab says people should not take Barnier’s account of this at face value.

Q: How would you stop MPs stopping no-deal? And if they wanted to meet in another venue, how would you stop them - with the police or the army?

Raab says the Institute for Government report shows it would be hard for MPs to block no-deal.

And he says there is only one candidate in the contest who favours prorogation. He says Rory Stewart wants MPs to vote again on Theresa May’s deal. Because of the Commons rule banning repeat votes on the same issue, Stewart would have to prorogue parliaement, he claims.

And he says Stewart’s citizens’ assembly idea is similar to the constitutional assembly tactic used by Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela.

Q: Is it fair universal credit claimants have to wait five weeks for their benefit?

Raab says two things are crucial. The system must be changed so it is adapted to the “fluid” circumstances of claimants. And he wants to help the low paid, he says. That is why he is proposing raising the tax threshold.

Q: Would you slash corporation tax in the event of a no-deal Brexit?

Raab says he would take a range of measures to help business, whether or not there was no-deal. But he is not sure whether slashing corporation tax would be the best way of doing this.

Q: What do you think of President Trump’s anti-Khan tweet?

Raab says he does not think that is constructive. He is proud to live in a multi-identity city. He is proud to have a Muslim mayor, and proud to have a Muslim home secretary.

Q: Would you commit to giving half your ministerial jobs to women?

Raab says he wants to bring forward talented women, but he won’t set a quota.

Q: Are you confident you will get the 33 votes you need tomorrow? And why is Boris Johnson, the other candidate proposing what is called a “clean Brexit”, so far ahead?

Raab says he is not proposing going straight to a WTO Brexit.

He says some YouGov polling today shows he is the only candidate who can beat Johnson amongst the membership.

And he is quietly confident of getting the 33 votes, he says.

Q: With recognition to your bigots comment about feminist, do you accept that there is systemic bias against women in society?

Raab says as a laywer he took cases defending women’s rights. And as a war crimes law, he prosecuted people of some of the worse crimes against women. He says he is championing equality. His actions speak for themselves.

The quote, from a column in 2012, was about double standards.

Q: Theresa May failed to get her deal through because of the definition of a hard border in the joint report of December 2017. Do you accept that definition?

Raab says that was a mistake. The wording was ambiguous, so he would not accept it, he says.

He says technology can address the border issue. If all the options are used, there is no need for any “state presence” at the border.

He says Dublin has over-emphasised this issue because the Irish government want to keep the UK in the customs union.

Q: Has Brexit damaged the Tories’ reputation as a party of Brexit?

Raab says he would hold an early budget, and bring the “fiscal horsepower” of the Treasury into play to help business.

We need more “can-do spirit”, he says.

Q: Isn’t it the truth that people in the EU don’t trust you?

Raab says people in Brussels are briefing against him because they fear him.

He says Simon Coveney’s office briefed that Raab wanted a three-month time limit to the extension. No one who knows him believes this.

Dominic Raab at the press gallery hustings

Dominic Raab starts by praising the media. We have the finest media in the world, he tells us.

(I don’t think we will fall for that.)

Raab says what he stands for his not just an opportunity society, but a second chance society. He mentions mentoring a boy at a boxing club. And he says his father, a refugee, effectively had a second chance too.

Q: Will you honour the Tory manifesto pledge to protect free TV licences for the over-75s?

Yes, says Hunt.

Q: How disappointed were you to come so far behind Boris Johnson last week?

Hunt says he was pleased to come second.

And that’s all from Hunt.

Q: Do you think Boris Johnson is partly to blame for the continuing incarceration of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe?

Hunt says he does not want to comment. Everyone makes mistake. He is sure he will make mistakes too.

Q: What job did you offer Matt Hancock?

No comment, says Hunt.

Q: Do you believe in God?

Yes, says Hunt.

Q: Has Brexit damage the UK’s standing in the world?

The vote to leave the EU didn’t, says Hunt. But the failure to deliver it has.

Q: What do you think of John Bercow?

Hunt says Bercow’s record is mixed. He suggests he has not been impartial, but he says he has done well to open up parliament.

Q: When you were health secretary you said that was likely to be your last job in politics? What has changed?

Hunt says he said that during the doctors’ strike. He was determined not to blink, and he wanted to show he would not back down, even if that were he last job.

Q: What did you think of President Trump’s anti-Khan tweet?

Hunt says Trump has his own style. But he agrees 150% that Khan should be focusing more on knife crime, and less on politicking.

Q: What do you meant when you say you broadly agree with what Theresa May said about the hard border in Ireland?

Hunt says, when he said he broadly agreed, he meant he broadly agreed. He says he would not allow physical infrastructure on the border.

Q: An MP told me that Boris Johnson can win over wavering Tory supporters, but you can’t. Why is that?

Hunt says Johnson comes top in those polls, but he comes second. But the Tories must deliver Brexit, he says. And he is the only person who can deliver for Brexiters, and for Tories now leaning to the Lib Dems.

Q: Would you halt the roll-out of universal credit?

Hunt says the principle of universal credit is right. But you always must be compassionate in the way you roll these things out.

Q: Do you think your Tory conference speech comparing the EU to the USSR damaged your standing in the EU?

No, says Hunt. He says he thinks international partners respect people who say tough things, even if they do not like them.

Hunt says there would be real risks to the union and to manufacturing from a no-deal Brexit.

But Brexit must be delivered, he says. The democratic risks of no Brexit would be worse, he says.

Q: Would you stop Scotland holding a second independence referendum, even if the SNP led a majority government?

Hunt says he is a unionist to his core. He would not do anything to put the union at risk.

Q: Do you accept that the Malthouse compromise alternative arrangements plan will not knock out the need for a backstop?

Hunt says you have to look at where we are now.

He says Rory Stewart’s plan to get the threat of a citizens’ assembly to force MPs to back the deal won’t work.

He says he thinks the EU would be flexible if a new leader came along with new ideas.

Q: Do you accept the definition of a hard border in Ireland drawn up by Theresa May in December 2017?

Broadly, yes, says Hunt.

Jeremy Hunt at the press gallery hustings

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, is here now.

He says in a negotiation you need someone you can trust, someone who will not blink and someone willing to walk away. He is that person.

Q: Do you think a no-deal Brexit would undermine UK security?

Javid says, under a no-deal, there would be no security agreement with the EU.

But the UK would still be one of the safest countries in the world.

He says the UK would still try to cooperate with the EU through things like Interpol.

And he says he has been pursuing bilateral agreements with EU countries like Germany on law and order, despite people advising him against this.

Q: Do you support drug safety rooms?

Javid says he is hesitant about this.

Call him the odd one out, but he did not take drugs when he young.

He grew up somewhere where drug dealing was prevalent. He would not want to encourage that.

Javid says he did not go to elite schools, like some of his rivals. He might not be as good a debate as them. But he thinks he is getting better as a communicator.

He speaks as someone with life experience.

He says Asian parents want their children to go into professions like dentistry because these are professions where you have to pass exams. You get judged on merit. And that was partly why he went into banking, he says. He says Asians gravitate towards professions like that because they are more meritocratic.

Q: Will you hold monthly press conferences if you become PM?

That’s an excellent idea, says Javid.

Q; What do you think about President Trump’s anti-Khan tweet?

Javid says Trump should focus on domestic politics. Knife crime is a serious problem. But it is 10 times worse in the US than in the UK.

Q: If there were another referendum, would you vote leave or remain?

Javid says he would vote leave.

Q; How confident are you of getting the 33 votes you need tomorrow?

“Extremely confident”, Javid says.

He says there is a growing feeling in the party that the final two candidates should both be “credible change candidates”.

He is a good person to put Boris Johnson through his paces, he says.

This is similar to the argument used by Michael Gove this morning, which sounded a bit like: ‘Vote for me, and I will give Johnson some useful debate practice before his inevitable victory.’ See 9.18am.

Javid ends with a bizarre line about how, if Labour win an early election, he does not know if Tories will be “up against the wall” first or if it will be journalists.

Updated

Q: Would you stop universal credit claimants having to wait five weeks for their money?

Javid says he supports universal credit. But he would look at aspects of how it works. It takes too long to make a claim, and he would review the appeals procedure too.

Q: Do you accept the definition of a hard border in Ireland negotiated by Theresa May in December 2017?

Javid says he does not have that definition in front of him.

But he is clear he would not agree to anything that would lead to infrastructure being put on that border.

Q: You were a banker before the crash. You must have known about the selling of dodgy products. What did you do to stop the crash?

Javid says he was working in Asia. There was a different business model in that market, he suggests. It was less affected by the crash.

He says there was a failure of regulation before the crash.

As a Treasury minister, he took the banking bill through the Commons.

Sajid Javid at the press gallery hustings

Sajdi Javid, the home secretary, is here.

Q: You talk about your backstory in very eloquent terms. But you have not said much about how you would help other people from your kind of background succeed. Do you regret, for example, the closure of Sure Start centres?

Javid says education was the big thing for him. He does not think that is unusual in Asian families. It is clear that his vision has been formed by his upbringing and experiences. He wants a society where, if people work hard, they can succeed. He would focus on schools and further education. We need a multi-billion pound investment programme, as we have for the NHS.

Q: Did you work for MI6?

No, says Stewart.

And that’s all from Stewart.

Q: What do you make of President Trump’s latest tweet attacking Sadiq Khan?

Stewart says he has been a professional diplomat. You make your points forcefully - but in private.

Q; What would you do to close the wealth gap between the north and south?

Stewart says the fundamental problem is the productivity gap. He says you need infrastructure to address this. It currently takes one hour 47 minutes to get from Leeds to Wigan.

Q: You claim to be different. But you voting record is that of a normal Conservative.

Stewart says he is proud of being a Conservative. He has only rebelled on Conservative issues - because he did not want an elected House of Lords.

Stewart says Johnson has got Matt Hancock supporting him, but also Mark Francois.

He suggests he finds it hard to see how he has won them both over.

It is as if Johnson thinks the MPs supporting him do not talk to each other, he says.

Q: Are there any circumstance in which you would vote with Labour in a no confidence motion to stop a no-deal Brexit?

Stewart says there are easier ways to stop no-deal Brexit.

He says he won’t commit to bringing down a Tory government.

He says he thinks there are around 100 of his colleagues who would also vote to stop a no-deal Brexit.

Q: Would you hold an early election?

No, says Stewart.

Q: Are you confident you will get the 33 votes you need tomorrow? And how have you been so successful?

Stewart says he does not know. He says Quentin Letts wrote a column saying it was like the film the Producers - as if Stewart had set out to run a deliberately bad campaign.

Q: And will you get the 33 votes?

Stewart says he will if people “do what they say”. But it is a struggle. Lots of MPs say they like his message, but cite other reasons why they must vote for someone else.

Q: Do you trust your fellow MPs?

“In the voting lobbies?” Stewart says. The clear implication is - no.

Stewart refuses to say if he would vote leave or remain in second referendum

Q: If there were another referendum, would you vote leave or remain?

Stewart says he voted remain in 2016, but he is now working for a pragmatic Brexit.

He does not want a second referendum. If there were one, he would have failed.

He would go into that voting booth conscious of this failure.

He does not answer the question.

  • Stewart refuses to say if he would vote leave or remain in a second referendum.

Asked again how he would vote, he still refuses to answer.

But he says people do not appreciate how damaging a second referendum would be.

Stewart says parliament could prevent no-deal Brexit on 31 October

Q: What happens if by 31 October you don’t have a deal?

Stewart says his “fundamental hypothesis is we live in a parliamentary democracy”. If parliament won’t accept it, it won’t get done.

In the debate last night a lot of his colleagues were “boasting” about how because they were an entrepreneur, or a hard man, they would get something better from Brussels. But it is not like that, he says.

He says 31 October is only the default because parliament made it so. He says parliament could unmake it the default.

  • Stewart says parliament could prevent a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.

Q: What if the citizens’ assembly comes up with a plan the EU rejects?

Stewart says, in that case, it would not happen.

But he would expect the assembly to take evidence from people like Michel Barnier.

He would not expect it to come up with a unicorn.

Q: Do you accept you would have to get this deal through on the back of Labour and opposition votes?

Stewart says he thinks he could unlock some more Tory colleagues, maybe a dozen or so. If he were elected on this mandate, he would persuade some Tory MPs. But not all - he would not get John Redwood over the line.

But he says he would then reach out to people like Lisa Nandy.

And, if he had to resort to a citizens’ assembly, that would be an option favoured by people like Nandy.

Rory Stewart at the press gallery hustings

Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, starts by saying he wants to take questions, so he does not want to make an opening pitch.

Q: In Ireland citizens’ assemblies have taken years to find policy solutions to problems. So why do you think one could be used in the UK to get a Brexit solution quickly?

Stewart says any solution will have to be achieved through parliament.

He says he will focus on getting the deal through parliament. He needs another 45 votes to do that.

The citizens’ assembly plan would be a threat to encourage parliament to compromise.

But if he fails to get the deal through parliament, he will need an alternative - something that forces MPs to think outside party political boundaries.

He says a citizens’ assembly could be run like jury service. It could sit at weekends, and reach an agreement quite quickly.

He says, if the citizens’ assembly comes up with something parliament does not want, parliament could reject it.

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, was the candidate who criticised Boris Johnson last night in the Channel 4 debate most directly for not turning up to the debate.

Today he has criticised Johnson again for dodging the press gallery hustings.

Christopher Hope, the chairman of the lobby, is now introducing the event.

He says every candidate will get the chance to make a brief opening statement. Then there will be 10 minutes of questions on Brexit, and nine minutes on everything else.

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, has meanwhile been delivering his Brexit speech, which we previewed this morning.

I’ll post more on it later, when I have read the full text, but here are some lines from ITV’s Robert Peston.

Gordon Brown has also tried running the “Shakespeare was a remainer” line in the past.

Press gallery Tory leadership hustings

Normally I blog from my desk in the Guardian office in the press gallery in the House of Commons, but now I’m in committee room 14 - the biggest committee room in the Commons, where the 1922 Committee and the PLP meet - for the press gallery hustings - basically, a series of press conference with all the Tory leadership hustings, except Boris Johnson, whose team say he is too busy doing debate prep to be able to attend.

Here is the running order.

The proceedings are on the record, but off camera - because the Commons authorities have strict rules about filming in these rooms.

I will be covering the proceedings in full.

Boris Johnson's unfunded spending promises could force up government borrowing by billions, says Gauke

In his Daily Telegraph column today (paywall) Boris Johnson, the favourite in the Tory leadership contest, says he wants to give every home in the country access to superfast broadband by 2025. He says it is a “disgrace” that rural areas have such poor broadband.

It is therefore a disgrace that this country should suffer from a deep digital divide, so that many rural areas and towns are simply left behind. They can’t rely on teleconferencing. They can’t skype properly. Sometimes the coverage is so bad that they can’t even email properly. This is 21st century Britain – the country that helped to pioneer the very idea of the world wide web – and yet we have only seven per cent coverage of full fibre broadband. In Spain there are now 85 per cent of households that have full fibre-optic broadband, with its almost limitless capacity to pump data to and from your home. There are remote Galician pueblos that have speed-of-light access to all the commercial and cultural glories of the web. There are whole towns in Britain where people are still being driven wild with frustration as they stare at the slowly revolving pizza wheel of doom.

However, Johnson does not explain how much this cost, or where he would find the money. All he says about funding is:

This will cost some public money, but the productivity gains are immense.

The Telegraph has splashed on the story.

This is not the first time Johnson has used his Telegraph column to make an expensive and unfunded spending commitment. Last week he was proposing tax cuts for higher rate taxpayers.

This morning David Gauke, the justice secretary and a former Treasury minister, has said Johnson’s promises could force up government borrowing by billions of pounds.

Gauke is backing Rory Stewart for Tory leader.

He has also, presumably, given up hope of keeping his cabinet job in the event of Johnson becoming PM.

Turning back to Matt Hancock’s decision to endorse Boris Johnson, Sky’s Sophy Ridge had a very good take on Twitter last night ...

Michael Gove's Today interview - Summary

Here are some more excerpts from the Michael Gove interview with John Humphrys on the Today programme.

  • Gove, the environment secretary and leadership candidate, rejected suggestions that Boris Johnson was anti-business, saying Johnson’s “fuck business” comment had been taken out of context. Asked about it, Gove said:

I think those words were taken out of context ... I think that, in context, someone was trying to suggest that because a particular business organisation took a particular view, that Boris was wrong. Actually, as we know, in some of the big questions that this country has faced, business has had a wide spectrum of views.

I think, to be fair to London, he was emphatically pro-enterprise, and he supported financial services, and he made sure there was investment in infrastructure and in the support that our financial services, and that our other businesses, needed in our capital.

  • He dismissed suggestions that there were any moral grounds for rejecting Johnson as a candidate for PM. When it was put to him that moral probity might be a problem for Johson, Gove replied:

I would dismiss that altogether ... Moral probity does matter. But I think that all of the candidates who are standing to be leader, in my view, are capable of being prime minister.

I personally think that Boris and all the other candidates are people who on every ground have what it takes to be a potentially good prime minister.

Later Humphrys returned to the theme, referring to Johnson’s history of telling lies and his incompetence as foreign secretary. Was Gove concerned about these issues? Gove replied:

If you want to put those questions direct to Boris himself, I know that he will answer them. But let me defend him ... I will happily defend Boris on this. There have been various attempts to to mount personal attacks against him and against some other candidates. I think that is wrong. Look, in the past, I have had my criticisms and differences with Boris. But I believe he is somebody who is capable of being prime minister.

But the key question is - who do we believe is the person with the best record in office, and the clearest vision for the future.

When pressed again, Gove said he did not share the doubts Humphrys had raised about Johnson.

  • Gove said he did not want to criticise any of the other candidates because they all needed to work together. He said:

I am not going to criticise other candidates because, in essence, we are all on the same time. I might play for Manchester City, you might play for Manchester United, we might have friendly rivalry, but when we are playing for our country together, we have got to make sure that we unite in order to do best for our country.

  • Gove highlighted one difference between himself and Johnson, saying that if he was close to getting a Brexit deal at the end of October, he would be willing to delay Brexit again to get it over the line. Johnson says he will leave the EU by 31 October come what may. But Gove argued that this approach could lead to MPs triggering a general election, which would put Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street by Christmas.

And here is some comment on the interview.

The Mail on Sunday’s Dan Hodges said he wrote up then new Gove approach in his column.

My colleague Peter Walker has an alternative theory for Gove’s stance.

This is from my former Guardian colleague Jane Martinson.

This is from the BBC’s Emma Barnett.

And this is from the BBC’s Rachel Byrne.

The Scottish Conservative MP Paul Masterton, who Matt Hancock for the leadership last week, has said that he will now be voting for Rory Stewart. Masterton explained:

With Matt out, I’m still looking for the same things: energy, intelligence and enthusiasm with a clear vision for delivering Brexit and for the country beyond it.

Someone who really gets the Union, with ideas to strengthen and secure it.

Stewart got just 19 votes in the ballot of MPs last week, making him last of all the candidates left in the race. To avoid being eliminated in the next vote, on Tuesday, he will need not just to avoid coming last, but to get at least 33 votes (because candidates who do not hit this threshold will fall out, as well as the one who comes last).

Boost for Boris Johnson as Gove tones down his criticism of his candidature

It is a good morning for Boris Johnson. We have seen two developments that should firm up his chances of becoming the next prime minister; or perhaps more accurately, two developments that suggest that his rivals have given up hope of beating him.

First, Matt Hancock, the health secretary who withdraw from the contest on Friday, has announced that he is backing Johnson. He explains why in an article in the Times (paywall). Here is an extract from his article:

I said when I withdrew from the contest that I’d consider the best way to advance those values. I’ve now spoken to all the candidates. They are all inspirational people, with many and varied strengths, and I would be proud to serve any of them as my prime minister. I have reflected on what is needed in the national interest, and how the approaches of the candidates fit with my values. Having considered all the options, I’m backing Boris Johnson as the best candidate to unite the Conservative party, so we can deliver Brexit and then unite the country behind an open, ambitious, forward-looking agenda, delivered with the energy that gets stuff done.

Boris has run a disciplined campaign and is almost certainly going to be our next prime minister. We need to unite behind him with a strong team that can bring the party together and then bring the country together. After any debate like this, people need to put aside their differences for a greater purpose. My view is that we need to start coming together sooner rather than later.

Second, and perhaps more surprisingly, Michael Gove, who is still in the contest and who hopes to make it into the final two for the ballot of party members alongside Johnson, has dialled down his criticism of the former foreign secretary. A week ago, at his campaign launch, Gove went for Johnson quite aggressively, condemning his proposed tax cut for the wealthy, implicitly questioning his seriousness and his commitment to Brexit, and at one point even appearing to make a joke about his sexual promiscuity (although he denied this was the intention, so perhaps it was just a case of us reporters thinking dirty).

But this morning, in an interview on the Today programme, ‘Gove, the Johnson slayer’ had disappeared. Instead we heard a Gove who spent half the interview robustly defending his rival (much more convincingly, by the way, than James Cleverly, the Johnson supporter who was on the programme earlier speaking as a Team Johnson representative.) Gove rejected the idea that Johnson was anti-business (the “fuck business” was taken out of context, Gove insisted) and he refused to accept that there were any moral reasons why Johnson was not suited to be prime minister. He even at one stage seemed to imply that Johnson was bound to win and that the only reason he (Gove) should be on the ballot for party members was to ensure that Johnson got stretched a bit before his inevitable victory. Gove said:

At the moment, yes, of course it is the case that Boris is the front-runner.

But we need to make sure that he is tested and that we have two candidates who go forward - if Boris is one of them - who we know are capable of being prime minister from day one.

I will post more from the interview shortly.

Here is the agenda for the day.

10.30am: Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, gives a speech on Brexit. As Heather Stewart reports, he will say Labour should be at the forefront of the campaign to stop Brexit.

11am: All the Tory leadership candidates except Boris Johnson are due to take questions from press gallery journalists at Westminster. It is being described as a hustings, but effectively it is a series of on-the-record, but off-camera press conferences. These are from Christopher Hope, the Telegraph’s chief pol0itical correspondent who has organised the event in his capacity as chairman of the lobby.

2pm: Philip Hammond, the chancellor, holds a press conference with his Chinese counterpart, the vice-premier Hu Chunhua, after talks in London.

3pm: The Conservative 1922 Committee holds a private leadership hustings for Tory MPs.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web, although I will be focusing mostly on the Tory leadership contest. I plan to post a summary when I wrap up at the end of the day.

You can read all the latest Guardian politics articles here. Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’s top 10 must-reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

I try to monitor the comments below the line (BTL) but it is impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer questions, and if they are of general interest, I will post the question and reply above the line (ATL), although I can’t promise to do this for everyone.

If you want to attract my attention quickly, it is probably better to use Twitter.

Updated

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