Penny Mordaunt is “confident” she will get the 100 nominations needed from Tory MPs to challenge Rishi Sunak for the Tory party leadership, her senior backer has said.
Former minister Damian Green said Ms Mordaunt should hit the mark before Monday’s 2pm deadline after Boris Johnson pulled out of the race on Sunday night.
“Penny is now looking to make sure she’s above the 100 mark of nominations. Then we can proceed to what will be a civilised discussion between Penny and Rishi,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“We’re confident Penny will get above the 100 mark,” Mr Green said. “There were a lot of people who weren’t declaring publicly what they were doing. Penny’s numbers are well above the published figures already, even without any of Boris supporters.”
The Mordaunt campaign claimed just before 12 noon that she had endorsements from 90 Tory MPs – despite few than 30 declaring their support publicly.
“We have now passed 90. For the sake of the party, it’s important our members have their say,” said a spokesperson for the Mordaunt campaign.
If Ms Mordaunt falls short of the threshold by the 2pm deadline, or pulls out of the contest, Mr Sunak will take charge of the party without the need for any vote from Tory MPs or members.
If she does hit the threshold, Tory MPs will then vote this afternoon, with the result expected at 6pm. If both candidates still boast 100 backers after that, the contest is then handed over to Tory members, with online voting taking place until 11am on Friday.
Mr Sunak has reached more 50 per cent support among Tory MPs, getting over 180 nominations by 10.30am on Monday morning.
But key backer Andrea Leadsom said there is “absolutely no chance” that Ms Mordaunt would be stepping down from the race today, saying her team was “supremely confident”.
It comes after Mr Johnson dramatically withdrew from the race – having never officially entered, claiming he had the numbers, but admitting he could not unite his warring party.
The former PM said there was a “very good chance” he could have been back in No 10 by the end of the week if he had stood. But he added: “You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament.”
Former culture secretary Nadine Dorries – the uber Johnson loyalist – said it would now be “impossible” to avoid a general election after her former boss withdrew.
“Rishi and Penny, despite requests from Boris refused to unite which would have made governing utterly impossible. Penny actually asked him to step aside for her. It will now be impossible to avoid a GE,” she tweeted.
Attacking Mr Sunak further on LBC, Ms Dorries said: “If Rishi becomes automatically prime minister by Tuesday I think all hell will break loose,"
Echoing arguments made by Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP, she said: “He’s got no mandate from the people … He’s got no mandate, whatsoever, to be prime minister of this country."
Ms Dorries added: “He lost the leadership election to Liz Truss, he hasn’t won this one, he won’t have gone to the members for the vote, and I think it will be very, very difficult for him to sustain the pressure not to go for a general election."
But Sunak backer Grant Shapps, currently the home secretary, insisted there was no need for a general election. “We elect a party and we elect individuals,” he told Sky News.
Meanwhile, Nadhim Zahawi – the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster – was mocked for switching his support to Mr Sunak, only minutes after a piece he wrote for The Telegraph backing “Boris 2.0”.
Mr Johnson’s former spokesman Will Walden says allies are “angry” at being marched up the hill for no good reason.
“The only people he has let down this time are the 50 or so colleagues who went public and went over the top for him … A lot of them clearly are angry at meaningless promises,” he told LBC.
Mr Johnson has “gone with very little grace” having “further destabilised the party, albeit briefly”, Mr Walden added – predicting that “he won’t be back”.
Tory MP David Morris told the BBC: “I was on the meeting with Boris and team not so long ago – within the past hour. And I have got to say that I was absolutely flabbergasted.
“It’s just one of those occasions where you just don’t believe it is really happening,” the MP said.
