Michael Gove has announced that he will back Rishi Sunak to be the next leader of the Conservative Party.
The former levelling secretary told the Times that he didn’t think “rival Liz Truss’s prospect was the right answer,” adding that he didn’t expect to return to front-line politics.
Several cabinet members have publicly endorsed Ms Truss, a bookie favourite. It comes as Sunak reveals plans that he said she would help British motorists.
The former chancellor said he would ban new smart highways, crack down on dishonest parking tickets and review some of the neighbourhoods designated “low-traffic areas” in recent years. He indicated that he planned to be a prime minister who would tackle what he called a “war on motorists”.
He pledged to introduce a transition to electric vehicles without punishing drivers while presenting a “rural implementation action plan” to ensure rural communities are not left behind.
Sunak is fighting with Truss to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson as Tory leader. The result will be announced on September 5.
However, Ms Truss appears to be the frontrunner in the polls. She has been backed by senior Conservatives colleagues, including Nadhim Zahawi, Thérèse Coffey, Sajid Javid, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nadine Dorries, and former leadership candidates Suella Braverman and Tom Tugendhat.
During a recent Sky interview, Mr Sunak was recently questioned as to why he could not win the public support of close colleagues other than his main backer, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.
Mr Gove backed Kemi Badenoch earlier in the contest but has now said he is in favour of Mr Sunak, as Ms Truss appeared to be taking a “holiday from reality” with her plans to cut tax during the cost-of-living crisis.
He missed out on his leadership bids in 2016 and 2019. He was most recently sacked as Levelling Up Secretary after publicly telling Mr Johnson to quit as prime minister ahead of his ultimate resignation.
Mr Gove has now launched a defence of Mr Sunak, saying the tax hikes he brought in as chancellor were “a consequence of Covid, not Rishi’s inner preferences”.
He wrote in the Times: “I know what the job requires. And Rishi has it.”
He suggested Ms Truss would put “the stock options of FTSE 100 executives” before the nation’s poorest people and attacked her plan to reverse the national insurance hike immediately.
He wrote: “And here I am deeply concerned that the framing of the leadership debate by many has been a holiday from reality. The answer to the cost-of-living crisis cannot be simply to reject further ‘handouts’ and cut tax.”
Mr Gove said he does not expect to return to frontbench politics, saying: “I do not expect to be in government again. But it was the privilege of my life to spend 11 years in the cabinet under three prime ministers.”
The Sunak campaign welcomed his backing, with a spokeswoman saying: “Delighted to have the support of a party and Cabinet veteran who has intellectual heft and shown the radical reforming zeal in every job he has had, that we now so desperately need.”
Mr Sunak’s announcement of his motoring policy saw him label smart motorways “unsafe” as he pledged to stop any new ones being built.
The two candidates appeared at hustings – answering questions in front of party members, who will choose the next leader, in Manchester on Friday evening.
Ms Truss spoke about her plan to lift the ban on new grammar schools, saying she wants everyone “right across the country” to have the choice to enlist their children at one
She targeted the Mayor of Greater Manchester as she called Andy Burnham the “miserabilist mayor… who doesn’t want opportunities” for people in the city.
She told the Manchester Central Convention Complex crowd: “He doesn’t want opportunities for people in this city, and he has to be defeated.”
Meanwhile, Mr Sunak used the event to share his plans on rolling out private-sector style “surgical hubs” “across the country” in the NHS.
Taking a swipe at the UK’s foreign policy, he said: “We’ve got to toughen up our foreign policy. At the moment, we have a situation; I found bonkers; we will go to a country, talk to them about a trade deal we want to do with them, and potentially give them actual foreign aid.
“But at the same time, we don’t say to them, ‘hang on, you need to take back your failed asylum seekers’, that’s wrong’.”