Boris Johnson’s claim to have had enough support to challenge Rishi Sunak in the Conservative leadership contest was true, a senior Tory who organised the race has suggested.
The new prime minister was elected leader of his party unopposed after Mr Johnson and Penny Mordaunt, now the Commons leader, dropped out of the contest.
Sir Graham Brady, chair of the powerful 1922 Committee which organises leadership contests, said “two candidates” had reached the threshold of 100 nominations needed to get onto the ballot of Tory members, and “one of them decided not to then submit his nomination”.
Earlier, a Home Office minister was branded “callous” after saying it is “a bit of a cheek” for migrants to complain about conditions at the overcrowded processing centre at Manston in Kent.
“If people choose to enter a country illegally and unnecessarily, it is a bit of a cheek to then start complaining about the conditions,” Chris Philp said in an interview yesterday.
“They don’t even have to come here, they were in France already and previously often passed through Belgium, Germany, and many other countries on the way,” he added.
