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https://www.theguardian.com/politic...weigh-up-dominic-raab-challenge-for-tv-debate
Sajid Javid has become the latest Conservative to declare he is standing for the party leadership, telling members: “First and foremost, we must deliver Brexit.”
The home secretary made his announcement on Monday in a video posted on Twitter. He said: “As last night’s results made all too clear, we must get on and deliver Brexit,” adding it was important to “restore trust, bring unity, and create new opportunities across the UK”.
Javid, 49, is the latest entrant in a crowded field of nine candidates so far. Born in Rochdale, the son of a bus driver, he is the first person of Asian origin to stand to become leader of the Tories and ultimately prime minister.
A long-term supporter for leaving the EU, opponents say he could still struggle to win over Brexiters because he voted to remain in the EU referendum.
His announcement came after another candidate, Dominic Raab, challenged his rivals to take part in a televised debate. Raab’s challenge immediately raised concerns that such a debate would further expose gaping divisions across the party.
Two of Raab’s leadership rivals, Andrea Leadsom and the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, have welcomed his TV debate proposal. Boris Johnson, the favourite to succeed Theresa May, has been asked for a response.
Raab officially joined the party’s leadership race on Sunday, but has been signing up MPs as supporters for several weeks.
He and Javid join Hunt, the international development secretary, Rory Stewart; the health secretary, Matt Hancock; the environment secretary, Michael Gove; and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey, who are all vying for the leadership.
In a statement meant to increase pressure upon his competitors, Raab said: “I hope that the other candidates take me up on my suggestion of holding a televised debate so that we can test each other’s plans on Brexit.”
Other rivals are mulling over the suggestion, conscious that Johnson has previously struggled when pressurised by fellow Tories.
During ITV’s referendum debate in 2016, Amber Rudd, then the energy secretary, memorably described Johnson as the “life and soul of the party but not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening”.
One aide to a leadership candidate said a debate could, without careful management, permanently damage the party. “We have to decide if we are going to expose ourselves to an all-out bunfight on the EU. It could turn out to be a race to the bottom,” the aide said.
There are fears among Tory moderates that many of the eight declared leadership candidates will adopt hardline Brexit positions to win over 160,000 party members. They will choose who is to be the next prime minister from a shortlist of two candidates whittled down by MPs.
On Monday, after the EU election results, Johnson warned his party that it would face a fresh drubbing if it did not deliver Brexit “properly”.
“The message from these results is clear,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph. “If we go on like this, we will be fired: dismissed from the job of running the country.
“The only way to avert that outcome is to honour the result of the 2016 referendum, and come out of the EU; and that means doing it properly – not with some frail simulacrum of Brexit, but clearly and sensibly, so that we are able to join every other independent country in being able to set our own tariffs and make our own laws.”
Leadsom issued a statement on Monday describing the results as “truly terrible”.
“It is now vital we now find a way to decisively leave the EU … I have a three-step plan for how we deliver Brexit which I look forward to discussing further during the leadership campaign,” she said.
McVey said the UK should leave the EU in five months’ time with a “clean break” and should not appease those who voted for a second referendum.
“People saying we need a Brexit policy to bring people together are misreading the situation. That is clearly not possible.
“We need to deliver on the referendum result with a clean break and then we bring people together by how we govern the country outside the EU,” she said.
Sajid Javid has become the latest Conservative to declare he is standing for the party leadership, telling members: “First and foremost, we must deliver Brexit.”
The home secretary made his announcement on Monday in a video posted on Twitter. He said: “As last night’s results made all too clear, we must get on and deliver Brexit,” adding it was important to “restore trust, bring unity, and create new opportunities across the UK”.
Javid, 49, is the latest entrant in a crowded field of nine candidates so far. Born in Rochdale, the son of a bus driver, he is the first person of Asian origin to stand to become leader of the Tories and ultimately prime minister.
A long-term supporter for leaving the EU, opponents say he could still struggle to win over Brexiters because he voted to remain in the EU referendum.
His announcement came after another candidate, Dominic Raab, challenged his rivals to take part in a televised debate. Raab’s challenge immediately raised concerns that such a debate would further expose gaping divisions across the party.
Two of Raab’s leadership rivals, Andrea Leadsom and the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, have welcomed his TV debate proposal. Boris Johnson, the favourite to succeed Theresa May, has been asked for a response.
Raab officially joined the party’s leadership race on Sunday, but has been signing up MPs as supporters for several weeks.
He and Javid join Hunt, the international development secretary, Rory Stewart; the health secretary, Matt Hancock; the environment secretary, Michael Gove; and former work and pensions secretary Esther McVey, who are all vying for the leadership.
In a statement meant to increase pressure upon his competitors, Raab said: “I hope that the other candidates take me up on my suggestion of holding a televised debate so that we can test each other’s plans on Brexit.”
Other rivals are mulling over the suggestion, conscious that Johnson has previously struggled when pressurised by fellow Tories.
During ITV’s referendum debate in 2016, Amber Rudd, then the energy secretary, memorably described Johnson as the “life and soul of the party but not the man you want driving you home at the end of the evening”.
One aide to a leadership candidate said a debate could, without careful management, permanently damage the party. “We have to decide if we are going to expose ourselves to an all-out bunfight on the EU. It could turn out to be a race to the bottom,” the aide said.
There are fears among Tory moderates that many of the eight declared leadership candidates will adopt hardline Brexit positions to win over 160,000 party members. They will choose who is to be the next prime minister from a shortlist of two candidates whittled down by MPs.
On Monday, after the EU election results, Johnson warned his party that it would face a fresh drubbing if it did not deliver Brexit “properly”.
“The message from these results is clear,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Telegraph. “If we go on like this, we will be fired: dismissed from the job of running the country.
“The only way to avert that outcome is to honour the result of the 2016 referendum, and come out of the EU; and that means doing it properly – not with some frail simulacrum of Brexit, but clearly and sensibly, so that we are able to join every other independent country in being able to set our own tariffs and make our own laws.”
Leadsom issued a statement on Monday describing the results as “truly terrible”.
“It is now vital we now find a way to decisively leave the EU … I have a three-step plan for how we deliver Brexit which I look forward to discussing further during the leadership campaign,” she said.
McVey said the UK should leave the EU in five months’ time with a “clean break” and should not appease those who voted for a second referendum.
“People saying we need a Brexit policy to bring people together are misreading the situation. That is clearly not possible.
“We need to deliver on the referendum result with a clean break and then we bring people together by how we govern the country outside the EU,” she said.
