Graham Brady confirms new prime minister will be revealed on 5 September
The new prime minister will be revealed on 5 September after the Conservative party announced the leadership race rules.
Many Tory MPs wanted Boris Johnson forced out more quickly but grassroots Conservatives appeared to fight off an attempt to remove him before then.
Candidates in the race to be the next leader will be whittled down to two by several rounds of voting among MPs before the vote goes to the Tory membership.
The first vote by MPs will take place on Wednesday, Sir Graham Brady, chair of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories said after the group met on Monday evening.
The list of leadership candidates reached 11 earlier in the day after Sajid Javid, the former health secretary and chancellor, officially launched his campaign. Priti Patel is reportedly planning to enter the race.
All besides former chancellor Rishi Sunak have offered tax cuts, drawing opposition from prominent figures in finance including the governor of the Bank of England.
Tory leadership candidates will need backing of 20 MPs to get on ballot
Candidates in the Tory leadership race will need 20 nominations to get on the ballot paper, the 1922 Committee has decided.
This would rule out several of the candidates on the crowded shortlist of 11.
Given there are 358 Tory MPs, the numbers are there in the parliamentary party for all candidates to make the list but they may not all all get an even 20 as calculations about likely results play in the minds of backers.
At the latest count, only Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt would make the list but scores of Tory MPs have not publicly announced who they support.
The threshold has been doubled from the 2019 leadership race, when 10 candidates secured the 10 nominations needed to enter the race.
Liam James11 July 2022 21:27
Exclusive: Sajid Javid ‘exploited non-dom tax loophole’ while working in Treasury
Sajid Javid exploited a tax loophole to benefit from non-dom perks while working in the Treasury as a ministerial aide, The Independent understands.
The Conservative leadership hopeful, who on Monday called for greater scrutiny of candidates as he launched his campaign, would say only that he gave up the controversial tax status “before entering public life” and refused to answer further questions on his tax affairs.
But according to sources familiar with Mr Javid’s tax planning, while the former health secretary gave up non-dom status in 2009, he preserved some of the tax benefits through an offshore trust until 2012. This step, which is entirely legal, allowed him not to pay UK income tax on some foreign income from investments. From 2011, Mr Javid worked in the Treasury as a ministerial aide to then chancellor George Osborne.
Sajid Javid ‘exploited non-dom tax loophole’ while an MP working in Treasury
Exclusive: The conservative leadership hopeful used the status to minimise his tax bill via an offshore trust
Joe Middleton11 July 2022 21:03
New Tory education minister attacked free school meals as ‘nationalising children’
Boris Johnson’s new education minister argued against free school meals and said he did not believe families could not afford food, it has emerged (Jon Stone writes).
Brendan Clarke-Smith was appointed a minister at the Department for Education on Friday to fill a vacancy left by a wave of resignations.
In October 2020 the Bassetlaw MP used a speech in parliament to complain that free school meals amounted to “nationalising children”.
He has also said he believed it was “simply not true” that “people can’t afford to buy food on a regular basis”.
Opposition MPs said it was a “complete disgrace” to make Mr Clarke-Smith an education minister given his views.
Liam James11 July 2022 20:45
Tory MP threatens to return to classroom if teachers go on strike
A Conservative MP has offered to return to the classroom to help if…
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