Tom Tugendhat has hinted at intentions to enter himself into the Conservative leadership race.
The Conservative MP sighted “divisive” politics within the party as a major issue and said MPs should offer themselves “forward for service” at the next leadership contest and not treat the party like “a church, with one true faith, one Pope”.
Boris Johnson was the subject of a no confidence vote in which 41% of Conservative MPs said they were not confident in the Prime Minister’s ability to lead.
148 of his MPs voted in favour of his removal, with a Tory peer admitting the chances of the Prime Minister continuing for a long time were “slim”.
Tom Tugendhat has hinted at intentions to enter himself into the Conservative leadership race.
Niall Carson
The Prime Minister won the vote, which was called after 54 MPs submitted letters of no confidence to the backbench 1922 Committee following the release of the Sue Gray report which detailed a number of gatherings in Downing Street during the pandemic, one of which resulted in a police fine for Mr Johnson, his wife and Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Mr Tugendhat himself refused to rule out entering himself into any future leadership contests, he said: “No, I won’t rule it out. And I won’t rule it out because I think that we should be ambitious for ourselves, for our communities and for our country … We should offer ourselves forward, and then it’s up to colleagues and the country to choose.
“We shouldn’t be resentful about [if] the choice doesn’t go in your way. But you should offer yourself for service. That is literally the point of being in public service, is to offer yourself.” He told The Guardian.
Boris Johnson has made a surprise visit to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv to offer a major training operation he believes could “change the equation” against the Russian invasion.
The Prime Minister visited the Ukrainian capital on Friday to pledge training to up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days, as he vowed “we will be with you until you ultimately prevail”.
The Prime Minister visited the Ukrainian capital on Friday.
House of Commons
Downing Street said the British-led scheme would train and drill Ukrainian troops to accelerate their deployment, rebuild their forces and increase their resistance.
Arranged in secret in recent days, it was Mr Johnson’s second visit to Kyiv since Russian president Vladimir Putin began his offensive in February.