14 June 2019 | UK NEWS
Matt Hancock, the current Health Secretary, has become the latest contender in the Conservative Party leadership election to withdraw his candidacy. This follows the results of the first round of MP voting, which were held yesterday morning with the result announced at around 1pm. Mr Hancock received 20 votes in this round, placing him 6th overall as things stood on Thursday afternoon.
In a statement, Mr Hancock said: “I ran as the candidate of the future, but the party is understandably looking for a candidate for the unique circumstances we face right now”. He did not indicate which of the other contenders might now receive his backing in the next round of voting, which will be held this coming Tuesday, although he did add that he was “talking” to each of them.
Elsewhere on the UK political scene, Chuka Umunna left his struggling party of Change UK today and joined the Liberal Democrats. It comes in the aftermath of the party’s split earlier in the month, with a number of MPs choosing to become The Independent Group once more. Mr Umunna said he had been “wrong” to think that “millions of politically homeless people … wanted a new party”.
He added that he had “massively underestimated just how difficult it is to set up a fully fledged new party without an existing infrastructure”, but also ruled out calling a by-election in his constituency of Streatham. He did not immediately throw his weight behind either Jo Swindon or Sir Ed Davey to be the next leader of the Lib Dems.
The move has prompted scrutiny of Umunna’s past utterances on the topic of the Lib Dems, including when he said on Twitter in April 2017 that he could not forgive them for what they had “done to my area”. Prior to this, in September 2013, he had said that “you can’t trust a word the Lib Dems say”. His former colleague in Change UK, Anna Soubry (who is now its leader), later said that Umunna had made a “very serious mistake” in quitting the fledgling party.
In the newspapers today, The Guardian reports that the stand-out lead candidate in the Tory leadership election, Boris Johnson, has said he will appear in a BBC TV debate, although he also turned down a similar offer from Channel 4.
Meanwhile, The Express carries a story reporting that the outgoing Prime Minister and current Acting Leader of the Conservatives, Theresa May, is said by close friends to become emotional when the topic of her future is raised*.
* Perhaps understandably! – Ed.
