The home secretary, Sajid Javid, is prepared to take Britain out of the EU without a deal if he becomes prime minister and fails to get concessions from Brussels.
The Tory leadership hopeful has ruled out a second referendum, a general election, and revoking article 50, instead promising to leave the EU on 31 October – with or without a deal.
Writing in the Daily Mail, he said: “The voters have been asked their opinion more than enough times. Never in this country’s history have we asked people to go to the polls a second time without implementing their verdict from the first.
“Another vote before we leave would be disastrous for trust in politics, and cause the kind of chaos that risks handing Jeremy Corbyn and his hard-left supporters the keys to No 10.”
Javid, who is one of a dozen Conservatives hoping to become the next prime minister, set out a five-point plan to get the UK out of the EU.
James Cleverly
The former deputy chair of the party and an under-secretary in DExEU, Cleverly has only been in parliament since 2015. The MP for Braintree announced his candidacy to his local paper saying the Conservatives needed to “look new and sound different”.
Michael Gove
The environment secretary is to pitch himself as a “unity candidate” capable of attracting leavers and remainers, as he formally declared his candidacy saying: “I believe that I’m ready to unite the Conservative and Unionist party, ready to deliver Brexit and ready to lead this great country.” But robust Brexiters in particular dislike the fact that he stayed loyal even in the final days of the crumbling May regime.
Matt Hancock
The health secretary remains a relative outsider, but the longer the race goes on, the more he gains ground for the seemingly basic virtues of being apparently competent and broadly similar to a normal human being, albeit a particularly energetic one. A concerted effort would probably require an image consultant.
Mark Harper
The former immigration minister and chief whip was behind the controversial ‘go-home’ vans when working under Theresa May at the Home Office. He resigned as immigration minister in 2014after it emerged he was employing a cleaner who did not have permission to work in the UK. He later served as David Cameron’s chief whip. But he has not served in Theresa May’s government and has, therefore, sought to cast himself as the candidate who offers ‘fresh thinking.
Jeremy Hunt
Fears that the foreign secretary would be another overly woolly compromise choice were hardly assuaged when after a set-piece speech he seemed unable to outline why his brand of Conservatism might appeal to voters.
Sajid Javid
The home secretary still has the same weaknesses: he is an uninspiring speaker and some worry he is too fond of headline-grabbing, illiberal political gestures. But he is almost as ubiquitous as Liz Truss, and clearly believes this is his time.
Boris Johnson
The out-and-out favourite, so popular with the Tory grassroots that it would be hard for MPs to not make Johnson one of the final two. He has been relatively quiet recently, beyond his regular Telegraph column, but this is very deliberate.
Andrea Leadsom
The former House of Commons leader, who left Theresa May as the last candidate standing when she pulled out of the previous leadership race in 2016, has decided to have another tilt at the top job, saying she has the “experience and confidence” to “lead this country into a brighter future”. But even with her staunch Brexiter tendencies, she would be seen as an outsider.
Kit Malthouse
The housing minister is credited as the convener of both Conservative leavers and remainers to develop a compromise on May’s withdrawal agreement. He said there was a “yearning for change”. The 52-year-old is a former deputy mayor of London and entered the Commons in 2015 when David Cameron’s Conservatives won a majority. His name was given to the “Malthouse compromise” – a proposal drawn up by backbenchers from leave and remain wings of the Tory party, which would have implemented May’s Brexit deal with the backstop replaced by alternative arrangements.
Esther McVey
The former work and pensions secretary, who quit last year over May’s Brexit plans, has launched her own in-party campaign group/leadership vehicle called Blue Collar Conservatism, promising to make the party more amenable to voters in deprived communities – mainly through a promise to deliver a strong Brexit and policies such as diverting much of the foreign aid budget to schools and police.
Dominic Raab
Few things say “would-be leader in waiting” like a kitchen photoshoot with your spouse, and the former Brexit secretary duly obliged with this imageawash with tasteful pastel hues. He formally launched his bid in the Mail on Sunday. Among the more core constituency of Conservative MPs, Raab has been pushing hard, as has his semi-official “Ready for Raab” Twitter feed.
Rory Stewart
The cabinet’s most recent arrival – Mordaunt’s promotion to defence led to Stewart becoming international development secretary – certainly has the necessary ambition and self-belief, plus a privileged if unorthodox backstory covering Eton, Oxford, a senior role in postwar Iraq and a bestselling book about walking across Afghanistan. He remains an outsider, not least because of his remain tendencies and slightly 2010 view of compassionate Conservatism.
And those not in the running
Sir Graham Brady, Penny Mordaunt and James Brokenshire are yet to declare their intentions. Liz Truss and Amber Rudd have ruled themselves out.
Among other senior figures not expected to run are Brandon Lewis, Chris Grayling and Philip Hammond. Gavin Williamson’s recent sacking after the Huawei leak inquiry will also surely rule him out as an option this time around.
He said he would prepare for a no-deal Brexit with an emergency budget, which he noted would show the EU “we are ready – so when we turn up to negotiate, they know we are not afraid of walking out”. He said he did not want to leave the EU without a deal, but “we have to accept the reality of our situation”.
The home secretary said he planned to get his deal through parliament with a Northern Ireland backstop that included a time limit or exit clause, and vowed to work closely with Ireland to ensure there was a frictionless border.
“What’s currently missing is trust in our ability and determination to deliver that. That requires two things. Someone who could work with them constructively, building a strong relationship of personal trust. And a credible solution,” he wrote.
Javid added that he had tasked a team from Border Force to look into this issue at the Home Office which, he said, insisted the technologies already existed to avoid a hard border.
The 49-year-old is up against other contenders including Boris Johnson, Rory Stewart and Michael Gove to replace Theresa May. On Friday, the former immigration minister Mark Harper became the 12th MP to enter the race.
The Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan said the number of candidates in the leadership race was becoming “a bit silly”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “This is a very, very serious moment where we are choosing our next prime minister at the most difficult political time, so anyone who is a candidate has to go straight from wherever they are through the door of No 10.” He said the list needed to be thinned out, as “serious debate” was being crowded out.
Javid also pledged to hire 20,000 extra police officers if elected prime minister, promising to spend £1bn over three years to put “police on the beat” and end a “culture of impunity” among criminals.
