Since Theresa May announced she was leaving Downing Street, the race to replace her in Number 10 has been a bit of a circus – something Rory Stewart embraced in full at the launch of his leadership campaign on Tuesday night.
Set in an actual tent on the Southbank in London, Stewart was the ring-master on a stage at the centre of the packed event.
“I’m going to start with that great prancing elephant in the room is this big circus tent,” he began, speaking about this stance against a no-deal Brexit. “And I’m speaking not about the leading leadership contender here…”
Like everything the international development secretary has done during the leadership race, the launch of his campaign was as different as you could get from the rest of the pack of contenders.
From pledging to walk through every single county in the UK – “listening and walking” – if he was elected PM, to a five minute chat with the infamous Stop Brexit man in the middle of his event, Stewart was his uniquely quirky self.
But the former prisons minister was clearly keen to get across his credentials as a serious contender in the race.
Arguing that his Tory colleagues are peddling “fairy stories” in order to get themselves into power, Stewart said his premiership would instead be based on four energies – that of shame, seriousness, action and conviction.
“We need a sense of shame,” he said, speaking about the need for further improvement in prisons and in social care.
“We need to feel shame. Our policies must begin from a place of shame,” Stewart continued, telling the audience how he had met an 88-year-old woman looking after a doubly-incontinent 92-year-old man.
If he was prime minister, Stewart told the crowd, every civil servant would have a sign on their desk saying: “Would you be proud to put your mother or brother or sister in this hospital? And would you be proud to bring a visitor from abroad here?”
An undeniable outsider in the leadership race – currently coming in at 26/1 in the bookies odds – Stewart also wasn’t afraid to question why Johnson was the favourite in the contest.
Questioned about the former foreign secretary, Stewart said he had asked Conservative Party associations across the country: “Do you really feel that this is the person that you want engaging with the detail and the future of your health and education system?
“Is this the person that you want writing the instructions to the nuclear submarines?
“Is this the person that you want embodying the nation on the world stage and guiding you through the most difficult choice that Britain has faced for 50 years?
“I trust the Conservative members to arrive at the correct answers.”
But, with Stewart keen to take no-deal off the table when it comes to Brexit, the excitement in the room for the leadership candidate is unlikely to translate into votes at the first ballot of Tory MPs on Thursday – despite the backing of veteran Tory MP Ken Clarke, who was at the event.
Holding a ‘Vote for Rory Stewart sign’, one of his supporters said: “If it was down to non-Tory members, he would clearly do well – we just need to convince dunder-headed Tory members to vote for him.”
It seemed at one point during the event that the cabinet minister had offered his support to a Labour motion to take no-deal off the table, but Stewart later tweeted to say he would not be voting for it.
Eight of the 10 Tory MPs vying to replace Theresa May in Downing Street have now launched their leadership bids, with home secretary Sajid Javid and Boris Johnson – currently the favourite to bag the top job – yet to officially kick of their campaigns.
TORY LEADERSHIP CANDIDATES:
Michael Gove – environment secretary
Jeremy Hunt – foreign secretary
Matt Hancock – health secretary
Sajid Javid – home secretary
Rory Stewart – international development secretary
Boris Johnson – former foreign secretary
Dominic Raab – former Brexit secretary
Esther McVey – former work and pensions secretary
Andrea Leadsom – former Commons leader
Mark Harper – former chief whip
Former universities minister Sam Gyimah dropped out of the race on Monday shortly after nominations closed, saying there had “not been enough time to build sufficient support”. He had been the only Tory leadership contender backing a second referendum on Brexit.
But the remaining candidates could be thinned out once again on Thursday, when the first ballot of Tory MPs is set to take place. Under new rules, leadership contenders will need to win the votes of at least 16 MPs in order to go through to the next stage of the contest.
