David Davis mulls tilt at Tory leadership… but insists he is ‘unenthusiastic’ about prospect of bid
- Tory David Davis says fellow MPs have urged him to run for the party leadership
- He said: ‘The country’s in trouble… I think it’s all of our duty to do it.’
- Mr Davis called for the Prime Minister to resign over the Partygate scandal
Senior Tory David Davis says his fellow MPs have urged him to run for the party leadership.
The former minister – an ardent critic of the Prime Minister – said last night that he didn’t have a preferred candidate to succeed Boris Johnson, and didn’t rule himself out of the running.
But Mr Davis also said he was not ‘hunting for a job’ and was ‘unenthusiastic’ over the prospect of a leadership bid.
When asked if other Tories were backing him for the top job, Mr Davis told Channel 4’s Andrew Neil Show: ‘The answer is yes, and I’ve been unenthusiastic.’
Fellow MPs have urged David Davis to run for the party leadership
The former Brexit Secretary said he would step in if needed, for the sake of the country.
He added: ‘The country’s in trouble. If there was a job I thought I could do, then I think it’s all of our duty to do it. But I don’t think that’s going to be coming. I’m not wasting time thinking about it.
‘I like trying to make a difference – and there are many ways to make a difference. I could do it from both front bench and back bench.’
He also said Mr Johnson had bought himself another year after his nervy win in last week’s vote of no confidence – that he wouldn’t be pushing for the 1922 Committee to change the rules on voting anytime soon.
Mr Davis was one of the first MPs to call for the Prime Minister to resign over Partygate, telling Mr Johnson in January: ‘In the name of God, go!’
The current crises, including the cost of living, means the Prime Minister will be forced into tough, often unpopular decisions.
Mr Davis said he was not ‘hunting for a job’ and was ‘unenthusiastic’ over the prospect of a leadership bid
‘I’ve lived through lots of Prime Ministers having had confidence votes against them – and once a year is quite enough, frankly,’ he said.
‘The Prime Minister has got to be able to run the show … so if he’s always looking over his shoulders and the first unpopular thing he does will throw him out, then that’s a disaster.
‘ Because a lot of what he’s going to have to do is going to be unpopular.
‘The truth is, we’ve now got control of our own affairs. We are able to build on that now. One of my arguments with Boris is they haven’t done enough of that yet.’
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