Stephen Crabb and Sajid Javid team up to run for future Prime Minister and Chancellor in Tory leadership race
The two working class ministers will stand on a joint ticket to block Boris becoming PM
A BLUE collar ‘dream team’ of two working class Tory Cabinet ministers are going to run to stop Boris Johnson becoming PM.
Leadership hopeful Stephen Crabb is to stand for Tory party leader and Business Secretary Sajid Javid is said to become his deputy on the ticket.
The Work and Pensions Secretary and the Business Secretary are being pushed by younger Tory MPs elected in 2010 and 2015.
The duo are being seen as representing a new generation of Tories with humble roots closer to the general public, in stark contrast to the “Bullingdon Club” era of Old Etonians, David Cameron and Mr Johnson.
Mr Crabb, 43, grew up with a single mum on a housing estate in Pembrokeshire, West Wales.
And Mr Javid, 46, is the son of a bus driver from Bristol.
Dozens of pro-EU Tory MPs are now grouping together as a block in a bid to stop Boris from getting down to the last two candidates offered up by MPs to to their 130,000 party members.
Both of the party rising stars campaigned for a Remain vote in the referendum last week.
But that could also stand against them as many other Tory MPs have called for the election of a Brexiteer to lead as the “moral choice” after the Leave’s victory.
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They also only have a few years’ experience at the top level of government between them.
Mr Crabb would be taking on a the nation’s top job at what one MP last night described as “the worst time to become PM since the Second World War” with the tough job ahead of them of negotiating the UK’s EU departure.
The new development comes in another dramatic day in Westminster as;
- Frantic Tory leadership hopefuls were locked in a race against time to sign up MP supporters after party grandees ruled Britain will have a new PM a month early by September,
- Former Bank of England Governor Mervyn King accused Chancellor George Osborne of treating Brexit voters like “idiots” in an astonishing attack,
- Financial markets were hit by fresh turmoil as Britain’s credit rating was slashed by agency S&P and the FTSE crashed down 2.5%,
- David Cameron lashed out at attacks on European migrants to insist the county “will not stand for hate crime”.
Boris is still the frontrunner for the nation’s top job and is seen as the party members’ choice.
But he could be squeezed out before the final hurdle if vengeful MPs manage to block him before them during their own rounds of voting, sending Mr Crabb and Home Secretary Theresa May to the membership instead.
Mr Crabb was seen to take a dig at Boris yesterday by mocking his “unity” leadership campaign slogan, saying: “This is not about party unity any more, it’s about national unity”.
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