Tory leadership rivals discuss combining forces to get one of them through to final round

Rory Stewart has said he is in discussions with Michael Gove’s camp over potentially combining forces as a way to make sure one of them reaches the final stage of the Conservative leadership contest, in advance of the third round of voting by Tory MPs.

Stewart, who came fourth in Tuesday afternoon’s second round of voting, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show his team had held discussions with Gove’s aides, despite their differences over Brexit tactics.

“We’re talking about combining forces, because it’s clear that Boris is going into the last round and the question is, who is best placed to sit on the stage with Boris Johnson and who is best placed to ask the testing questions that need to be asked and who has the vision of Britain that is going to excite people, get young people involved again in politics, and show us that we can build a much better country,” he said.

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When questioned about their different stances on Brexit – Stewart says there will be no time to negotiate a revised deal, while Gove is confident this can be done by, or close to, 31 October – Stewart conceded it would need work.

“We would have to sit down and come to a common position. I would have to say to him, how is it that you think you are going to get a different deal through Brussels, how would you get a no-deal through parliament,” he said.

“We would have to agree to compromise. And if neither of us were prepared to budge on our analysis of the situation, then of course we couldn’t combine as a team.”

While the latest round of voting left Johnson well ahead with 126 of the 313 votes cast, the remaining four candidates were closely clustered behind, with Jeremy Hunt on 46, Gove on 41, Stewart on 37 and Sajid Javid with 33. Dominic Raab was eliminated with 30.

While Stewart did not specify who would lead such a joint ticket, a source in his camp said it would be him: “Clearly, at some point people will need to combine teams. But any team that gets combined, Rory wants to lead it – Rory believes that he is the only one with a chance to beat Boris in the final two, and to provide the clearest choice.”

However, Gove’s supporters played down the idea. A source in his camp said: “We are in it to win it and obviously we would welcome the support of any candidate that wanted to drop out and support us.”

One key battle for the remaining candidates will be to secure some of Raab’s supporters. Stewart told the BBC that he had so far gained pledges from two of them.

Hunt stepped up his attacks on Johnson before the next round, questioning whether his predecessor as foreign secretary had the necessary grasp of detail, and declining to say he could be trusted.

During a BBC TV debate on Tuesday, Hunt had challenged Johnson on whether or not he would force a no-deal Brexit on 31 October even if a deal looked imminent.

Hunt used the example of a sheep farmer he had met, who warned that his family business would be wiped out by tariffs in the event of no deal.

Quick guide Tory party leadership contest Show Hide What happens next in the Tory party leadership race? As she announced on 24 May, Theresa May stepped down formally as Conservative leader on Friday 7 June, although she remains in place as prime minister until her successor is chosen. In a Conservative leadership contest MPs hold a series of votes, in order to narrow down the initially crowded field to two leadership hopefuls, who go to a postal ballot of members.

How does the voting work? MPs choose one candidate, in a secret ballot held in a committee room in the House of Commons. The votes are tallied and the results announced on the same day. In the first round any candidate who won the support of less than 17 MPs was eliminated. In the second round anybody reaching less than 33 votes was eliminated. In subsequent rounds the bottom placed contender drops out until there are only two left. The party membership then chooses between them. When will the results be announced?

The postal ballot of members has begun, and the Tory party says it will announce the new prime minister on 23 July.. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

“The reason I asked that very direct question to Boris is because the job of prime minister is not actually about broadbrush statements,” Hunt told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“We all want to leave by 31 October, we all want to have an orderly Brexit. That’s the easy bit. It’s actually about making finely balanced judgments on the basis of the facts in front of you.”

In the TV debate, Johnson said his intention, if he were prime minister, was to leave on 31 October, but he did not offer an absolute guarantee. Hunt said: “Well, I’m not entirely sure what he believes on this, having listened to him last night.”

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Asked if he trusted Johnson, or whether the EU could, Hunt said he did not want to “make highly personal accusations against other candidates”, but nonetheless declined to confirm this.

“I’m going to answer it this way: I believe that they would trust Jeremy Hunt as prime minister, that they would sit round the table, they would talk to me,” Hunt said.

However, Hunt did not comment on the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman jailed in Iran, whose husband, Richard, has said incorrect comments made by Johnson when he was foreign secretary had worsened her plight.

“I think that is for Richard Ratcliffe to comment on,” Hunt said, saying it would be “incredibly unseemly” to use the case in the leadership race.