Jeremy Hunt has invoked the memory of Winston Churchill, asking what the wartime leader would say about his fellow Conservative leadership candidate Boris Johnson “hiding away from the media”.

Johnson comprehensively won the first ballot of Tory MPs on Thursday, in which Hunt came a distant second, and the foreign secretary is now appearing to present himself as the only challenger who can “offer something different” to Johnson.

Speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, Hunt accused Johnson of preventing a wider debate about Brexit in the party, which its members wanted to hear.

“We can only have that debate if our frontrunner in this campaign is a little bit braver in terms of getting out into the media and actually engaging in the TV debates,” he said.

“What would Churchill say if someone who wants to be prime minister of the United Kingdom is hiding away from the media, not taking part in these big occasions?”

BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) "What would Churchill say if someone who wants to be PM is hiding away from the media?"



Referring to Boris Johnson, Foreign Sec @Jeremy_Hunt says there should be "proper scrutiny" of the candidates including media interviews #r4today pic.twitter.com/7c8bSZC73f

Hunt said this was the 16th time he had been on the Today programme in the last year, while Johnson had only appeared once, and that the 2019 contest could amount to “a coronation without a huge amount of scrutiny”, as in 2016 when Theresa May became leader.

Q&A How do the Tories elect a new leader? Show Hide A Conservative leadership contest takes two stages. First, MPs vote for their choice from the nominated candidates. In progressive rounds of voting, candidates are eliminated until there are only two challengers remaining. The second stage is a postal ballot of Conservative party members to chose one of the two candidates. Theresa May's formal resignation as leader on 7 June triggered the contest and the Conservative party set out the following timetable: Nominations closed on 10 June. The first round of voting was held on Thursday 13 June. Subsequent rounds have been pencilled in for the 18th, 19th and 20th. Conservative party HQ says the postal vote element, when the 140,000 or so party members will pick the country's new prime minister, will be completed in the week beginning Monday 22 July.



“I’m going to turn this into a rerun of the 2005 campaign where a little-known outsider, David Cameron, came in and turned the tables,” Hunt said. “That’s the kind of contest, with real scrutiny, that we need to have.”

Hunt lauded his credentials as an entrepreneur, someone who has relationships with European governments and as somebody who formerly “ran our biggest public service, the NHS”, and claimed there had never been a prime minister with such a background.

“It is clear that if we are going to give the Conservative party a choice, and someone who can offer something different to Boris, then I am that person.”

Responding to questions about having shifted his position on Brexit, from remain to being open to a no deal, Hunt said: “Not at all, I’ve been consistent. Actually, Boris is the person who voted against Theresa May’s deal and then for Theresa May’s deal.

“I’ve always said that, in extremis, if it was the only way we could deliver Brexit then I would very reluctantly do a no-deal Brexit but I don’t think we’re at that point yet.”

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On Johnson’s commitment to leaving the EU by the current deadline, Hunt – who won the votes of 43 MPs, less than 15% of the party – said: “His hard stop on 31 October is effectively saying that the best we can offer the country is either a no-deal Brexit or a general election .. I think we have to ask whether that is best for the country.

“What European leaders say is that, of course, if someone approached them with some new ideas they would look at the whole package, and of course, they are willing to do that because they don’t want a no-deal Brexit either.”

Asked if Johnson would be a good prime minister, Hunt said: “I hope he would be if he becomes prime minister.

“I don’t know the answer to that question in advance. But, if he gets the job I will do everything in my power to make him a successful prime minister.”

Hunt refused to be drawn on claims by the foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan that cleaning up after Johnson’s gaffes when he was foreign secretary was a “full-time activity” that required a “pooper-scooper”.