He said that “Andrea Leadsom offers the zap, the drive, and the determination essential for the next leader of this country”.
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Meanwhile it seems to be the case that the more people see of Mrs Leadsom “the more they like her”, according to a senior Tory strategist.
In committee corridor in the Palace of Westminster t he leadership candidates posed for photographs at the entrance to the room where the first votes in the contest to choose the next prime minister were cast.
Further rounds of voting will take place this Thursday and the following Tuesday until two candidates remain.
Leadsom sought to set herself apart from other candidates who have said the United Kingdom should determine its negotiating position before formally triggering the process that will take it out of the bloc, known as Article 50.
She said: “I think what happened on the 23rd of June was a seismic event for British politics”.
Mrs Leadsom received a boost in her bid to replace the PM on Monday when Vote Leave figurehead Boris Johnson threw his weight behind her.
In an article for the Daily Telegraph, the Northern Ireland Office minister said: “When I was a government whip and Michael was the chief whip, the office leaked like a sieve”.
By the end of this week, Tory MPs will have chosen the two final candidates for the leadership ballot.
But Mr Gove, who joined the Oxford University Conservative Association during his time in Oxford, was a prominent figure in the Leave campaign.
Liam Fox and Stephen Crabb are considered outsiders. He noted the government’s unhurriedness in formally triggering the exit process and also said that “the reaction by companies and the financial market is a salutary shock for the country”.
The Home Secretary is the favourite candidate among members so far, with 97 MPs publicly backing her.
Mrs May has also faced criticism over her refusal to give firm assurances that European Union nationals would be allowed to remain in the United Kingdom and was accused by former Cabinet colleague Ken Clarke of being a “bloody hard woman” with little knowledge of foreign policy.
“And for that reason I’ve made a decision to give my support to Theresa May – I intend to work closely with her, to campaign for her, and I’m sure she will be a very fine prime minister of this country”.
Tory MPs are furious at Mr Gove for pulling his support from Mr Johnson at the 11th hour and deciding to stand himself – and argue he can not now unite the Tories following the European Union referendum.
Speaking to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Unconventional Gas and Oil she added: “And on both of those questions I now am completely persuaded”.
It comes as Boris Johnson, who dropped his own leadership bid after Michael Gove stepped into the fray, backed fellow Leave campaigner Andrea Leadsom for the job.
Backbencher Nadine Dorries, who backs Mrs Leadsom, said the energy minister outperformed expectations and that she was only expecting her to get 54 votes.
Right now it’s someone who was on the losing side in the referendum, Theresa May, that is well in front.
The former Cabinet minister, who clashed with Mrs May while he was in office, said he got on all right with her “and she is good”.
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Work & Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, with 22 MPs behind him is in fourth place while former Defence Secretary and arch eurosceptic Liam Fox is likely to be eliminated in the first round runoff as he only has five declarations.
