Tory leadership live: Priti Patel says she backs Boris Johnson as Rishi Sunak supporters say he has reached 100 backers

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Priti Patel backs Boris Johnson

The former home secretary Priti Patel has announced she is backing Boris Johnson for leader.

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Boris has the mandate to deliver our elected manifesto and a proven track record getting the big decisions right. I'm backing him in the leadership contest.

— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) October 22, 2022

Boris has the mandate to deliver our elected manifesto and a proven track record getting the big decisions right. I’m backing him in the leadership contest.

— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) October 22, 2022

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Here’s the full statement from the former home secretary Priti Patel on her backing of Boris Johnson.

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She says the events of recent weeks have been “painful” for the Conservative party and that it must unite behind the winner of this week’s leadership contest “to restore our reputation for financial discipline” and deliver on its election manifesto commitments.

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Patel continues:

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Boris has a proven track record getting the big decisions right, standing up for Ukraine and our values, and delivering on the people’s priorities. From the successful vaccine rollout to investing in leveling up, and from delivering more police on our streets to getting Brexit done, Boris has the leadership qualities, democratic mandate and optimism to get our country through these challenging times.

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I’m backing Boris to return as our Prime Minister, to bring together a united team to deliver our manifesto and lead Britain to a stronger and more prosperous future.

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Full statement from @pritipatel

Says recent weeks have been painful & party must unite. Says Johnson has the leadership qualities, democratic mandate & optimism to get country thru challenging times > the obvious issue is that many of her colleagues deeply disagree pic.twitter.com/Oxbe1DBxJV

— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) October 22, 2022

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The former home secretary Priti Patel has announced she is backing Boris Johnson for leader.

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Boris has the mandate to deliver our elected manifesto and a proven track record getting the big decisions right. I'm backing him in the leadership contest.

— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) October 22, 2022

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Boris Johnson’s plane has landed in London Gatwick as he returns to the UK from his holiday in the Dominican Republic.

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The flight was being tracked by around 7,000 users of the FlightRadar24 website.

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The number of publicly declared MPs who are backing potential candidates for the Conservative leadership is growing, with three key figures emerging: the former chancellor Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister Boris Johnson, and Penny Mordaunt, the current leader of the House of Commons. Each candidate will need at least 100 signatures to make it to the first round of voting on Monday.

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As of 9am on Saturday, Sunak was leading the field having received close to 90 public nominations.

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Here is a rundown of those who have publicly thrown their weight behind their preferred potential candidate:

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The veteran Tory MP Sir Roger Gale said he will “resign” from the Conservative whip if Boris Johnson is chosen as the next prime minister.

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Speaking on LBC, he said he was backing Penny Mordaunt but would be “equally content to row in behind” Rishi Sunak. He said:

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I was a member of the Conservative party before Mr Johnson was born. I shall die a Conservative. My wife and I have given over 100 years of service to the party. I’m not going to quit the Conservative party. But if Mr Johnson were to be elected, God help us, as the prime minister I would have to resign the Conservative whip.

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The party needs a candidate that can lead a team and who is a team player, he continued. Johnson “is utterly divisive”, he said:

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He will not unite the party and my colleagues, particularly my younger colleagues, need to remember that there’s going to be a hearing of the privileges committee that’s starting in November in some weeks. Do we seriously want that distraction on the front pages of all of the national newspapers every day for several weeks? What damage is that going to do to the unity of the party? It’s unthinkable.

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'If Boris Johnson were to be elected, God help us.'

Tory MP Sir Roger Gale says he will 'resign' from the Conservative whip if Boris Johnson is chosen as the next Prime Minister. @AndrewCastle63 | @SirRogerGale pic.twitter.com/KaDLPcHPpz

— LBC (@LBC) October 22, 2022

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The Tory former deputy prime minister Dominic Raab has warned that the Conservative party could find itself going “backwards” if Boris Johnson returned to Downing Street.

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Raab, who is backing Rishi Sunak for leader, said he “had a lot of respect” for Johnson and insisted he could eventually make a return to frontline politics”.

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He could not however see how Johnson would be able to serve as prime minister while he is still under investigation by the Privileges Committee for potentially misleading MPs about parties held in Downing Street during lockdown.

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Raab told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

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I just can’t see in practice how the new prime minister, in office latest next Friday, could give the country the attention [and] the focus it needs, and at the same time be giving testimony and answering all of those questions.

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I don’t say it with any relish. I’m sad about that situation. I defended Boris and I continue to think he can make a return to frontline politics. But whether you’re an arch-Boris fan or an arch-Boris critic, I don’t see how you can reconcile making a return to frontline politics with that Committee hanging over and oral testimony being heard.

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We cannot go backwards. We cannot have another episode of the Groundhog day, of the soap opera, of Partygate. We must get the country and the government moving forward.

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"Whether you're an arch Boris fan, or an arch Boris critic, I don't see how you can reconcile returning to front line politics with that committee looming"

Dominic Raab says the partygate inquiry makes it hard for Boris Johnson to return as PMhttps://t.co/mfIEgGfOrZ | #R4Today pic.twitter.com/u5O0IPNu3b

— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) October 22, 2022

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Boris Johnson was spotted last night on a British Airways flight from the Dominican Republic to London Gatwick, amid reports that he plans to join the Tory leadership contest.

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He’s reportedly sitting in economy class with his wife Carrie and their children, on the flight with the callsign BA2156. It is due to land at around 10.30am today.

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Sky’s Mark Stone said Johnson was booed by other passengers as passengers boarded the plane.

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He boarded before everybody else, on his own with his wife and two children. There was a mixed reaction, he was behind a glass area, as we were waiting inside the gate, we saw him the other side of the glass, there was a few boos, a few people looking slightly bewildered.

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I think there was an expectation of some of the holidaymakers here that he would be on the plane, but there was one or two boos, he wouldn’t have heard them because he was on the other side of the glass.

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.@BorisJohnson is on his way back to the UK. @SkyNews just spotted him on a flight from Dominican Republic to the UK. Sitting in economy with his wife and children. https://t.co/cKuvwN4wCv #boris #borisjohnson pic.twitter.com/PPO30oWftQ

— Mark Stone (@Stone_SkyNews) October 21, 2022

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Good morning. Rishi Sunak became the first Tory leadership candidate to reportedly secure the backing of 100 MPs needed to go through in the race on Friday night.

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Boris Johnson is on his way back to London from his Caribbean holiday to drum up support among MPs in his audacious bid to return to Downing Street.

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Neither Johnson nor Sunak have yet formally declared, while Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the House of Commons, became the first to announce she was standing on Friday.

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I’m Léonie Chao-Fong and I’ll be taking you through the latest in British politics for the next few hours. You can get in touch with questions or comments on Twitter or by email.

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In the meantime, Here is where things stood on Friday evening:

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Rishi Sunak reportedly has the backing of the 100 MPs needed to go through in the race. He is yet to formally declare his candidacy, and the Guardian’s count has him on 88 MPs, but Tobias Ellwood claimed that he had helped the former chancellor cross the threshold.

Among Sunak’s backers to declare on Friday were Matt Hancock, Tom Tugendhat and Sajid Javid.

Boris Johnson is on his way back from a holiday in the Dominican Republic, as he trails Sunak. The former prime minister has already secured the backing of six cabinet ministers, including Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Johnson was reportedly booed as he boarded the plane home, according to Sky News. He is due to land at London Gatwick at around 10.30am today.

A Johnson-supporting MP has said Johnson told him he is “up for it” and will fly back to the UK from his Caribbean holiday to stand in the Tory leadership contest.

Lord William Hague, the former Conservative party leader, has said that Johnson’s election would send the party into a “death spiral”.

Former Daily Telegraph editor and biographer of Margaret Thatcher, Lord Charles Moore, who is an ally of Johnson has urged him not to run in the contest and “sit this one out”.

Penny Mordaunt officially launched her leadership bid, saying she had been “encouraged by support from colleagues who want a fresh start, a united party and leadership in the national interest”.

Polling by Opinium suggests that in a general election, the public would vote for Sunak over Mordaunt and Johnson, and that Mordaunt would also beat Johnson.

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Key events

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