Matt Hancock, who dropped out of the Conservative leadership race at the end of last week, has endorsed Boris Johnson, despite having campaigned on a modernising ticket and said he would not push for a no-deal Brexit.

In an article for the Times announcing the decision, the health secretary said it was clear Johnson was likely to win, and it was time to “unite behind him” as soon as possible.

However, Hancock said Johnson, the former foreign secretary, had given assurances he would govern as a consensual, one-nation Conservative, and would support the needs of business. On both issues, Hancock said, he would “hold him to that”.

In the first round of voting among Tory MPs on Thursday, Hancock finished sixth out of 10 candidates with 20 supporters, above the 13 needed to progress to the next round but with little seeming chance of progressing much further.

Quick guide Tory leadership contenders Show Hide Jeremy Hunt His style is notably technocratic, with few rhetorical flourishes and an emphasis on his consensual approach and long record as a minister, notably during more than five years as health secretary, a traditional graveyard of ministerial careers. Hunt’s attempts to talk up a backstory as an 'underestimated' entrepreneur can fall flat given he is also the son of an admiral and was head boy at Charterhouse. Overall, Hunt’s approach can seem uninspiring and hard to pin down in terms of core beliefs, hence the 'Theresa in trousers' nickname among some Tory MPs – one that is more catchy than accurate (since May herself often wears trousers). In the final round of MP voting Hunt edged out Michael Gove, 77 votes to 75. Boris Johnson Johnson’s progress to Downing Street appeared unstoppable even before an overwhelming victory in the first round of voting among MPs. Most of his colleagues believe it is now all but inevitable that he will be Britain’s next prime minister. His well-disciplined campaign team will continue with their strategy of subjecting him to minimal media exposure, though once the field is narrowed down to two, the final pair will appear in more than a dozen head-to-head hustings for Tory members. The team’s main aim is simply to keep heads down and avoid Johnson creating headlines for the wrong reasons. It may not have worked. Johnson came first in the final round of MP voting with 160 votes.



Hancock announced he was pulling out of the race on Friday morning. His endorsement for Johnson does not mean his former supporters will follow suit. On Monday, one of these, the Scottish Conservative MP Paul Masterton, said he would instead back the other self-styled moderniser in the race, Rory Stewart.

Stewart was among five of the six remaining candidates who took part in a Channel 4 televised debate on Sunday night, which Johnson chose to not attend.

Play Video 2:01 Tory leadership candidates take aim at no-show Boris Johnson in TV debate - video

Michael Gove, who had been hoping to receive Hancock’s endorsement, said it was “disappointing, naturally”, for it to go to Johnson, but insisted he remained a serious contender.

“At the moment, yes of course it is the case that Boris is the frontrunner,” the environment secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “But we need to make sure that he is tested, and we have two candidates who go forward, if Boris is one of them, who we know are being capable of being prime minister from day one.”

Gove added: “I would be ready to take control of the ship of state and steer it safely through the difficult waters ahead.”

Asked about criticisms of Johnson’s character and honesty, Gove was circumspect: “There have been various attempts to mount personal attacks against him and against some of the other candidates. I think that is wrong. In the past I’ve had my criticisms and differences with Boris, but I believe that he is someone who is capable of being prime minister.”

In his Times article, Hancock said he had spoken to all the candidates, and had “reflected on what is needed in the national interest and how the approaches of the candidates fit with my values”.

He wrote: “Having considered all the options, I’m backing Boris Johnson as the best candidate to unite the Conservative party, so we can deliver Brexit and then unite the country behind an open, ambitious, forward-looking agenda, delivered with the energy that gets stuff done.”

Johnson had run “a disciplined campaign and is almost certainly going to be our next prime minister”, Hancock argued, saying: “We need to unite behind him with a strong team that can bring the party together and then bring the country together.” This unity, he said, needed to start “sooner rather than later”.

Johnson had promised in both public and private, Hancock added, to be a one-nation prime minister “and bring the country together around an optimistic vision for the future”. He said: “I will hold him to that.”

Referring to their expletive-based jostling on business, Hancock said: “Boris and I have both used language our mothers might disapprove of in this debate. But I have been reassured, again emphatically, that a Boris administration will be pro-business, pro-enterprise, supportive of the aspirational and the international. That matters to me, and I’ll hold him to that too.”