Home secretary and junior energy minister see off Michael Gove in campaign for Conservative party leadership

Andrea Leadsom, the junior energy minister who shot to prominence as a leading voice in the Vote Leave campaign, has secured second place in the Conservative party leadership race behind Home Secretary Theresa May on Thursday, ensuring Britain’s next prime minister will be a woman.

Tory leadership election: Leadsom beats Gove to join May on shortlist - live Read more

Leadsom, who was considered a rank outsider when the contest began, knocked out the justice secretary, Michael Gove, in the second round of voting by Conservative MPs, despite never having held a cabinet-level post.

In the second round of voting, May scooped up 199 votes, Leadsom had 84 and Gove was eliminated with 46, two votes fewer than he received in the first round.

The two-woman shortlist will now be presented to the party’s grassroots members around the country, with the winner due to be announced on 9 September, though there are calls for it to be speeded up due to the fallout from the vote to leave the EU.

May said she was “delighted” to have the support of so many of her colleagues; and stressed her experience at the highest level of government, saying: “This vote shows the Tory party can come together and unite, and under my leadership it will.

“We need strong, proven leadership to negotiate the best deal for Britain as we leave the European Union, to unite our party and our country and to make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us.”

Leadsom, a committed Christian, is regarded as a straight-talking right-winger, and gave a series of interviews on Thursday in which she said she was sceptical about gay marriage and would reintroduce fox-hunting — two causes célèbres of the Tory right. She also faced down pressure about claims on her CV that she held various senior posts in the City.

Asked by ITV about her views on gay marriage, she said there was “very clear hurt” caused by the legislation to many Christians and claimed the UK has “muddled the terms of marriage, civil partnership, registry office, church”.

“I didn’t really like the legislation, that was the problem, but I absolutely support gay marriage,” she said.

However, backbench MP Ben Howlett, a May supporter, said Leadsom’s comments appeared to “turn back the clock” on “one of the proudest achievements of David Cameron and the Conservative party has been equal marriage”.

Gove had entered the contest last Thursday just hours before nominations closed, and effectively stymied the leadership ambitions of his fellow Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson, whose campaign he was meant to be running.



That act of disloyalty appears to have raised doubts about Gove’s leadership potential among MPs, however; as did text messages sent by his campaign manager, skills minister Nick Boles, urging fellow MPs to “work together to stop” Andrea Leadsom.

At a private meeting with MPs, Graham Stuart told him: “If you’d asked me two weeks ago who I most respected in British politics you’d have been top of my list. But it is clear to me now that you are not fit for the post of prime minister.”

Conceding defeat, Gove said he was “really fortunate to have some of the brightest and the best of the parliamentary party on my side”, and described the two remaining candidates as formidable politicians. He added that he was pleased Britain would now have a female prime minister.

Leadsom was boosted by the support of Johnson, who insisted that despite her relative inexperience she had the “zap, drive and determination” required for the top job.

After the vote, Johnson said: “For the second time in history the Conservatives will have a female prime minster, proving that we are the not just the greatest but the most progressive party in Britain.

“I want to offer particular congratulations to Andrea Leadsom on her stunning achievement. She is now well placed to win and replace the absurd gloom in some quarters with a positive, confident and optimistic approach, not just to Europe, but to government all round.”

Leadsom also received the backing of many of those MPs who, unlike May, had supported the campaign for Britain to leave the EU. She gave a speech on Thursday morning at which she promised to “banish the pessimists” on the risks to the economy of leaving the EU.

Her campaign chief, Tim Loughton MP, said: “It was absolutely right that this would be an all-women shortlist. We have two strong women. We can now given the party a real choice. A remain woman; a leave woman. They both happened to go to state schools. They are both women. Hey, that’s pretty quirky for the Tory party.”

Another Leadsom backer, defence minister Penny Mordaunt, said: “It will be a really exciting contest, I hope it will be really positive. [Leadsom] is in this to win it, what she offers, her unique selling point is her strength on the economy, restoring stability and certainty to our economy swiftly.”

The electorate’s shock decision to vote to leave on 23 June triggered the leadership contest, after Cameron, who had campaigned strongly for a remain vote, said he would step down to allow a new prime minister to guide the complex negotiations.

How Tory party members will chose the next prime minister Read more

Some centrist Tory MPs now fear that the party’s activists, who have the final say on who will be their next leader and the country’s next prime minister, will prefer the pro-Brexit Leadsom to May, echoing the division in Labour between moderate MPs and the grassroots members who have backed Jeremy Corbyn.

May and Leadsom will now tour the country seeking to persuade the party’s activists, of whom there are thought to be about 150,000, that they are the right woman to lead the country out of the EU.

Former defence secretary Liam Fox was knocked out of the contest when he came last in the first round of voting on Tuesday, and the work and pensions secretary, Stephen Crabb, chose to withdraw after finishing fourth.

Additional reporting: Jessica Elgot