Home secretary Priti Patel has ruled out a late bid for the Conservative leadership after her closest rivals absorbed much of the support from the right of the party.
Allies of foreign secretary Liz Truss and attorney general Suella Braverman had been urging Ms Patel not to enter the crowded field and split the right – warning it could gift rontrunner Rishi Sunak a “coronation”.
Ms Patel said she had been urged to stand by her colleagues, but had decided instead to focus on “working to get more police on our streets” and “control our borders”.
In a statement, she said: “I am grateful for the encouragement and support colleagues and party members have offered me in recent days in suggesting that I enter the contest for the leadership of the Conservative Party. I will not be putting my name forward for the ballot of MPs.”
The home secretary, who win now be a prized endorsement for those on the right, did not say who she would back – but said she would be “listening to cases being put forward”.
Mr Sunak formally launched his bid to become prime minister earlier on Tuesday with a pledge to cut taxes, but only after inflation has been brought back under control. Tax cuts were “a question of when, not if”, he claimed.
Boris Johnson’s arch loyalists Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg came out in support of foreign secretary Liz Truss in a bid to block Mr Sunak.
Mr Rees-Mogg said she has “always opposed Rishi’s higher taxes, that again is proper conservativism”, while Ms Dorries said Ms Truss – who voted Remain in the 2016 referendum – is probably a “stronger Brexiteer than both of us”.
Allies of Ms Truss had warned Ms Patel not to jump into the race on Tuesday, with one telling the Daily Mail: “If the right don’t want Rishi Sunak to be prime minister then they need to unite behind a single candidate and that candidate is Liz.”
There were reportedly discussions between Ms Patel and Ms Braverman’s teams about which candidate could unite the Brexiteer, tax-cut backing right, but the attorney general has pushed defiantly on with her own bid to be PM.
An ally of Ms Braverman, asked if she would considered withdrawing to united the right behind someone else, told The Independent: “She absolutely won’t.”
The home secretary made a last-ditch appeal to the European Research Group (ERG) of Brexiteer Tory MPs on Monday night, reportedly vowing to cut taxes, ditch green levies and start fracking.
But by Tuesday lunchtime she had the formal backing of only around a dozen MP, well short of the 20 now required to get through the first stage of the contest.
Kemi Badenoch, with her anti-woke attacks on “identity politics”, is another contender poised to pick up some support from those who would have backed Ms Patel.
However, the former equalities minister said she refused to enter a “tax bidding war” with her competitors, arguing that candidates should level with the public over the measures needed to stabilise the economy.
Ms Badenoch also said she would tackle the economic crisis by cutting spending on international aid, and “superfluous” activities at univerities, including well-being officers and diversity “tick-box exercises”.
She also appealed to net zero sceptics in the party by has branding the landmark climate target “unilateral economic disarmament” and vowed to axe it if elected.
Senior Tory MP Steve Baker – founder of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of backbenchers, who is backing Ms Braverman – has suggested that he would push for the next PM to dismantle the government’s climate agenda.
Tory peer Zac Goldsmith told The Independent it would be better to have a Labour government than a leader who “deprioritises” action on net zero.
Lord Goldsmith added: “It would be a catastrophic error for Conservatives to select a candidate who deprioritises these issues, but if they do, then we can only hope voters replace the party at the [next] available election.”
It came as Grant Shapps pulled out of the race and backed Mr Sunak to be the next PM. Dominic Raab also endorsed the frontrunner.
Former health secretary Matt Hancock backed Mr Sunak for the leadership in a Twitter video, saying his former colleague had “the character and the experience” to win the next election.
Meanwhile, an ally of Ms Patel, lobbyist Patrick Robertson, had admitted sharing a “dirty dossier” on WhatsApp about Mr Sunak – but insisted he hadn’t written the memo.
In order to stand, a candidate will need the support of 20 MPs by this evening. The first ballot of MPs will then take place on Wednesday, with any candidate who fails to get at least 30 votes expected to drop out.
A second ballot will follow on Thursday with further ballots to be held next week until the list of candidates is whittled down to a final two, who will go forward into a postal ballot of party members in August. The final result would be announced on 5 September.
