Boris Johnson confirms he will not stand in Tory leadership race
Boris Johnson has pulled out of the Tory leadership race to replace Liz Truss as it “would simply not be the right thing to do”, leaving Rishi Sunak as the clear frontrunner to enter No 10.
The controversial ex-prime minister doubled down on claims that he had “cleared the very high hurdle of 102 nominations” required to appear on the ballot of Conservative MPs.
But said he had “sadly come to the conclusion that this would simply not be the right thing to do”, adding: “You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
The former chancellor was closing in on the figure of 179 nominations from Tory MPs needed to account for half the parliamentary party on Sunday night, with rival Penny Mordaunt trailing vastly with a mere 26 public declarations of support.
Earlier, sources close to Ms Mordaunt claimed she had rejected an appeal from Mr Johnson to drop out of the race.
