Mrs Trevelyan had been backing Michael Gove, the justice secretary, until he was eliminated from the Conservative leadership contest in a vote of the party’s MPs.
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Conservative Party members can vote by postal ballot or online. The victor will replace Prime Minister David Cameron, who announced his resignation after Britain voted last month to leave the European Union.
While Interior Minister Theresa May is the hot favourite Andrea Leadsom, a Brexiteer, hopes to capitalise on the current mood and will attack May on her record on immigration, which her critics say has been too welcoming.
Brexit campaign group Leave.EU published a poll of 5,000 Tory members last week, finding that 56 per cent back Mrs Leadsom compared to 44 per cent for Mrs May, putting them at odds with the Parliamentary party.
Her policy moves as home secretary have included reducing the minimum wage of non-EU workers wanting to work in the UK. May supported the “remain” camp but says she has the mettle to unite a party that – like the country – is divided over the referendum result. It’s about implementing the will of the people and she has said she will do that. “But genuinely I feel that being a mum means you have a very real take in the future of our country, a tangible stake”.
She told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Even the most experienced politicians, even prime ministers themselves can be misquoted, misinterpreted, misunderstood, make some careless phraseology”.
However, Mr Cameron insisted the leadership election was a matter for the Conservative Party Board. Although she became a government minister, she never made the top table as a secretary of state, unlike her opponent. The victor will be announced on September 9.
Conservative MP Tim Loughton, Mrs Leadsom’s campaign manager, said she would bring a “huge and fresh skills base” to Downing Street if elected.
She said: “Of course we were both affected by it”.
Britain’s impending exit from the European Union has sent the pound down to a 31-year low, hurt consumer confidence, and led managers to suspend trading in United Kingdom real estate funds amid uncertainty about how the country will navigate its exit.
“There’s one very important thing I think that both candidates have got to make clear – that is that European Union nationals living here now have absolutely no problem and they are welcome, they are a vital part of our economy”.
Lawmaker Alan Duncan, also a May supporter, called Leadsom’s comments “vile”, while colleague Antoinette Sandbach said Leadsom had shown “a lack of judgment”.
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His comments will be seen as a slap-down for Ms Leadsom who has said that, while she now supports gay marriage, she abstained in the Commons vote and would have preferred to see civil partnerships extended to heterosexual couples and marriage kept as a Christian service for men and women.
