Stewart, Javid insist on remaining in No 10 race

LONDON: 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 they 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. Former foreign secretary Johnson did not appear at the hustings event for political journalists and was notably absent from the first TV debate on Channel 4 on Sunday. But his campaign continued to gain ground with the support of Hancock, which came as a blow to Environment Secretary Michael Gove — who had courted his endorsement.

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.

Home Secretary Javid 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.”

Meanwhile, current number two Jeremy Hunt stood out as the only candidate to endorse US President Donald Trump’s retweet of comments attacking London Mayor Sadiq Khan. The Foreign Secretary said he agreed “150 per cent” with the “sentiment” of the Katie Hopkins’ comment about “Londonistan” retweeted by the president — despite it being labelled racist.

After the hustings, Stewart tweeted: “I 100 per cent disagree with both the language and the sentiment of the last sentence of this tweet. “Can all candidates please confirm the same.” Javid called the comments “unbecoming”, Michael Gove said they were “a mistake” and Dominic Raab called them “not helpful”.