WATCH: Sajid Javid says Theresa May should lead Tories into next election 'if she wants to'
2 min read
Sajid Javid has insisted he would support Theresa May remaining Tory leader at the next election 'if she wants to', following an interview in which he failed to give her his backing.
The Observer reported that when asked whether he saw Mrs May as the right person to contest the next election as Tory leader, Mr Javid stood up and responded: “I think we’re out of time”.
The Communities Secretary also used the interview to attack the “cult of personality” around the Prime Minister before June’s snap election, while blasting the party for “banging on about Brexit”.
Speaking on Sky’s Paterson on Sunday however Mr Javid said his hasty exit was down to having a date with his wife and that he and “almost every minister and cabinet minister” back Mrs May.
“Yes, if that’s what she wants to do then she should and she’d have my backing,” he said.
“[The Observer] make it sound a lot more dramatic that it was. That was an interview that was overrunning. I had a date with my wife and I didn’t want to be late, it’s as simple as that.
"You’ve actually taken the opportunity to ask me the question again and I’m glad you did. This is an important issue. Right now Theresa May is leading this country … if she decides, as she said, that she wants to continue to run the party and then to ask for the leadership of the country again in another election then she’d have my support and I think she’d have the support of almost every minister and cabinet minister out there.
Mr Javid added that Mrs May was the person to lead both the Conservatives and the country “right here and now”.
“I think that is the view of almost all the members of parliament that I meet that ultimately decide who leads the party,” he added.
“I think everyone recognises that this is something you’ll hear a lot about during this conference; is that we haven’t got everything right, of course the result of the election was disappointing but we need to show we’ve learned lessons from that and right here and now it is Theresa May who is going to take the party and country forward.”
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