Pro-Brexit Tories hustle to ensure their candidates make the final pair
Boris Johnson remains the front-runner among the Conservatives, but the field is crowded and the favourites don’t always win
London — Pro-Brexit Conservative members of the UK parliament will hold their own hustings and votes on the party’s leadership candidates to try to ensure their choice makes it to the final pair that grassroots members will choose from. Bill Wiggin, who chairs the so-called 92 Group of 160 Conservative MPs, has written to about 20 potential leadership candidates asking them to make a speech and take questions at a meeting in parliament on June 10. The group — named for the house in west London where members used to meet in the 1960s — will then hold a secret ballot to determine the most popular candidate. Many of the caucus are pushing for a hard split from the EU. The group “represents half the parliamentary party, and we want to see a truly Conservative leader”, Wiggin said in an interview. “We need to leave the EU and cannot afford to wait. Those leadership candidates who do not accept a clean global exit from the EU will not be getting our support.” Jacob Rees-Mogg is among the ...
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