Sajid Javid soars to top of Tory members’ wishlist for new leader
4 min read
Sajid Javid has leapfrogged Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg to become Conservative members’ top choice as next party leader, according to a new poll.
The Home Secretary, who was languishing on 2% support among those polled by website ConservativeHome just three months ago, has now scooped up 22% of the 1,107 votes cast by Tory supporters.
That puts him ahead of previous favourite Mr Gove, the environment secretary, and the arch-Brexiteer backbencher Mr Rees-Mogg, who are now ranked second and fourth respectively.
The findings are also a fresh blow for Boris Johnson, who was openly mocked by colleagues last week for swerving a vote on Heathrow Airport despite expressing long-standing opposition to the controversial third runway.
The one-time Tory favourite is now fifth-placed among Conservative Home readers - two places below an unspecified ‘other’ candidate.
The astonishing turnaround for Mr Javid comes amid reports that top Cabinet ministers are now stepping up their attempts to woo Tory backbenchers in anticipation of Mrs May being dethroned as Conservative leader.
The Sunday Times reports that Mr Gove has held a string of “listening” sessions with MPs, and has even floated the idea of scrapping the High Speed 2 rail project in favour of investment in the north of England in a bid to win them over.
Mr Javid’s team is meanwhile said to have begun tapping up special advisers in other departments to join his top team if he makes it to Number 10, and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has reportedly been inviting groups of MPs to regular lunches in Parliament.
Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson - who is currently locked in a battle with Number 10 and the Treasury over military spending - is meanwhile looking to step up his backbench-pleasing campaign for a funding boost by enlisting the support of the Royal Family.
But two senior Tories have urged warring ministers - who last week publicly traded blows over business warnings about the impacts of Brexit - to fall in line behind the Prime Minister or risk scuppering talks with the European Union.
Writing in the Observer, Sir Graham Brady - who chairs the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Conservatives - said: "The danger of disunity at the top of the party is not just that it makes the prime minister’s job more difficult in negotiations with Brussels, and therefore puts at risk the good Brexit deal that is in reach.
"It also gives an impression of division to the country. Electorates these days are volatile, but one thing is certain: they do not vote for divided parties. They rejected decisively the divided Tory party in 1997. If we were to let Labour in again, it would be a disaster for this country."
That plea for unity was echoed by Mrs May’s former deputy Damian Green, who slammed ministers obsessed with putting an "individual hobby horse" ahead of the future of the country.
"It is vital that as a country we show as united a front as possible at this key stage of the negotiations," he wrote in the Mail on Sunday.
"We all know the divisions that Brexit has caused and there is no point disguising them. Certainly the Europeans know about them very well.
“But it is not too much to ask that the Government itself can show a united front in the national interest. That means that every individual minister has a responsibility to think about his or her own public words, and decide whether now is the right time to be parading some individual hobby horse."
The top Theresa May ally added: "There is a time when this type of individualism can add to the strength of a Government, normally in relaxed periods immediately after an election. Now is not that time. We are at the sharp end of a negotiation that will shape the country for many years to come. It’s time to behave like good officers."
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