Tory leadership: Jeremy Hunt says he would serve in a Boris Johnson led cabinet or have him in his own

Tory leadership contender Jeremy Hunt has said he would serve in a cabinet led by Boris Johnson or have his rival in his own. 

Mr Hunt received widespread applause from party members at the latest leadership hustings after confirming this stance.  after saying he would be prepared to serve in a government led by rival Boris Johnson.

The Foreign Secretary was asked by a party member at the event at Nottingham Belfry: “If you win, would you invite Boris into your Cabinet and if he wins would you be prepared to serve under him?”

He came back with the simple response “yes and yes”.

Audience member Rob Gough, 30, of Northamptonshire, said that is “good because we want to unite the party”.

He added that Mr Hunt “definitely needs to be in there and working with Boris” but also stated that he is “going to support Mr Johnson”.

The victim support worker said: “I think he will get us through Brexit and winning the next election but I do think that Jeremy is a good guy.

“If Boris wasn’t the other candidate I probably would support him (Mr Hunt).

“I want Jeremy to be in the Cabinet, I might not want him to be prime minister but I definitely want him at the top table helping us to deliver Brexit and then in doing all the other stuff we need to do.”

This comes after Mr Johnson’s hopes of becoming the next prime minister received a boost, as a poll of Tory members suggested he was on course for a comfortable victory over Mr Hunt, with three-quarters of Conservatives supporting him.

Mr Johnson is backed by 74 per cent of Tory members against 26 per cent for Mr Hunt, according to a YouGov poll for The Times, carried out between July 1 and 5.

Mr Hunt acknowledged “Boris has been way out the frontrunner”.

However, he urged members to delay casting their ballots until after next week’s TV set pieces – an ITV debate on Tuesday and in-depth BBC interviews on Friday.