Brexiters at war as Boris Johnson pulls PM bid

Boris Johnson during his press conference at St Ermin's Hotel in London

Britain’s political upheaval following its vote to leave the EU took an extraordinary turn on Thursday when former frontrunner Boris Johnson pulled out of the race to be the next prime minister.

His move, which stunned his own supporters, followed the launch of a rival bid for the leadership of the Conservative party by his former ally Michael Gove earlier in the morning.

Mr Gove had turned on his fellow campaigner on the Leave side, saying the former London mayor could not “provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead”.

Theresa May, UK home secretary, also launched her campaign on Thursday, as bookmakers installed her as the favourite to succeed David Cameron as prime minister. She launched her bid with a promise to negotiate “the best possible terms when we leave the EU”.

The Daily Mail — for whom Mr Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, is a columnist — has thrown its weight behind Ms May. Friday’s front page says she must be the next leader of a “party in flames”.

The infighting in the Conservative party following the UK’s decision to exit the EU has compounded a deep sense of political instability and absence of leadership at a moment when a deeply divided country is contemplating the realities of life outside the bloc, against a backdrop of market turmoil and economic vulnerability.

Mr Gove and Mr Johnson were a powerful duo at the head of the campaign to take Britain out of the EU. It had been assumed that the two would join forces at the top of a Tory government whose overriding task is to complete the UK’s divorce from the EU on the best possible terms.

But the decision by Mr Gove to launch his own leadership campaign critically undermined Mr Johnson’s lifetime ambition to seize the crown.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday morning, Mr Johnson said now was a “moment for hope and ambition” in the UK, adding: “This is our chance to unite our party around those values and at the same time to unite our country and our society.

“It is vital now in the Conservative party that we bring together everybody that campaigned for both the Remain and Leave sides.”


The justice secretary saw his partner failing to rally the troops — and seized his opportunity

As the former mayor was speaking, many of his own supporters were still not aware that he was about to drop the bombshell.

Mr Johnson said that, having consulted colleagues and “in view of the circumstances in parliament”, he had concluded that person to replace Mr Cameron “cannot be me”.

One Tory MP in the Johnson camp said he had not realised that Boris was stepping down until the end of the speech.

“It felt awful. Gutted. I just walked out,” he said. “The Gove challenge just did for it, and Boris did not have enough self-belief to carry on.”

One minister, who had campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU, said: “It shows there is some justice in the world.”

He added that he would take pleasure from the imminent bout of negative briefings in the coming days between Mr Johnson’s allies and Mr Gove’s camp.

Mr Johnson’s withdrawal puts Ms May in a strong position to campaign as a ‘safe pair of hands’ candidate able to reunite a divided party and country.

Ms May confirmed that she would take Britain out of the EU. Although she was a low-key campaigner to stay in the EU, she said: “There can be no attempts to rejoin through the back door and no second referendum.”

But she said the EU talks would last for a number of years and that formal divorce talks should not start before the end of the year, in spite of impatience in Brussels that the UK should start the process by invoking its departure under Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty.

Ms May said that as prime minister she would reassure business by creating a stable environment. There would be no emergency Brexit Budget in the autumn and she intended to govern until 2020, ruling out an early general election.

Graham Brady, chairman of the party’s backbench 1922 committee, confirmed that there was now a shortlist of five candidates.

The other three are Liam Fox, former defence secretary, Andrea Leadsom, the Eurosceptic energy minister, and Stephen Crabb, work and pensions secretary.

Mr Gove has previously insisted he had never wanted to become prime minister, saying this month: “The one thing I can tell you is there are lots of talented people who could be prime minister after David Cameron, but count me out.”

But the justice secretary claimed that the events of the past week had changed his mind.

“If we are to make the most of the opportunities ahead we need a bold break with the past,” he said.

Mr Gove is best known for drawing criticism, when education secretary, for his plans to convert state schools into academies. He is known as a neoconservative on foreign policy matters, having been among those pushing Mr Cameron to intervene in Libya before the fall of Muammer Gaddafi.

“The British people voted for change last Thursday. They sent us a clear instruction that they want Britain to leave the European Union and end the supremacy of EU law,” Mr Gove said.

“They told us to restore democratic control of immigration policy and to spend their money on national priorities such as health, education and science instead of giving it to Brussels. They rejected politics as usual and government as usual. They want and need a new approach to running this country.”


Leaked email urges Gove to seek explicit promise of a job before committing himself to Johnson campaign

The intervention infuriated Mr Johnson and his allies, who had lined up Mr Gove as a potential chancellor.

Yet a leaked email from Ms Vine on Wednesday revealed his doubts about the abilities of Mr Johnson.

Ms Vine sent the email to her husband and media advisers but accidentally copied it to a member of the public. The email said: “You MUST have SPECIFIC assurances from Boris OTHERWISE you cannot guarantee your support.”

The email also revealed that Rupert Murdoch, proprietor of The Sun and The Times, and Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, “instinctively dislike Boris”.

Mr Fox told Good Morning Britain that any candidate who had voted to stay in the EU would struggle with credibility.

“I think it’s much harder for anybody who voted Remain to have credibility among the voters who voted to leave in terms of leading the country,” he said. “It’s not impossible, but it’s much harder. For those of us on the Leave side there is a natural credibility with those voters.”