SOUTH Essex MPs paid tribute to David Cameron after he announced his resignation – though most stopped short of backing a successor.
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Mr Cameron, announcing his departure in the immediate wake of his defeat in the European Union referendum, had said he wanted his successor in place by the time of the Conservative Party conference, which starts on October 2.
The Business Secretary, who campaigned for the United Kingdom to Remain in the European Union, was asked on The Andrew Marr Show if the next PM needs to be from the Leave side of the Tory Party, b ut Mr Javid would not be drawn. I was one of the 83 MPs who wrote asking him to stay on, but in retrospect this would have been hard. “These are his legacies”.
“Yes, this will have vast consequences for the Westminster drama: not only for David Cameron, who bet the farm and lost; but also for Jeremy Corbyn who conspicuously failed to deliver the Labour heartlands”, he said.
Verhofstadt said it was unacceptable that Cameron would delay the official start of exit talks for after the Tory congress. With that in mind, the current stand-out frontrunner is former London mayor Boris Johnson.
Despite calls by pro-Leave Tory MPs for David Cameron to stay on as prime minister, it is hard to see the man who called the referendum in the expectation of an easy Remain victory and went on to lose it remaining in post for long.
“I fought this campaign in the only way I know how, which is to say directly and passionately, what I think and feel – head, heart and soul”.
International Development Secretary Justine Greening earlier suggested on Sky News that Mr Johnson and Mrs May should do a deal and avoid a leadership contest.
It’s a huge blow to Cameron, who led the Conservative Party to victory in the 2015 general election and saw off the threat of Scottish independence a year before that.
The 54-year-old former defence secretary, Liam Fox, who finished a close third during the 2005 contest for Tory party leadership, is also expected to throw his hat in the ring for a second time.
Johnson isn’t the only candidate with a chance of securing the party leadership, however.
It was the first time the Prime Minister came face-to-face with some of the ministers – including his old friend Michael Gove – who engineered the defeat that has forced him to resign.
She has been silent since Friday’s bombshell European Union referendum result sent shockwaves through Britain’s political system as the country questioned how Brexit could be delivered.
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He said the new leader would have to be “somebody who has spelt out an agenda which the key Leave campaigners accept and can work with”.
