Boris Johnson surges ahead in race to be Tory leader

Boris Johnson surged into the lead in the race to be PM as he launched his campaign | WATCH

Boris Johnson has launched his official bid to become Tory leader. Picture: AFP.

Boris Johnson has surged into the lead in the race to be prime minister as he launched his campaign to be Tory leader with a vow to leave the EU at the end of October with or without a deal.

Yesterday the former foreign secretary gained 12 new parliamentary backers, meaning that he has 35 public supporters, 9 more than Michael Gove. Last night Jeremy Hunt had 24, Dominic Raab had 21, Sajid Javid had 15 and Matt Hancock had 12.

Today Mr Johnson will face his first big test of the leadership contest when Amber Rudd’s caucus of one-nation Conservatives holds its first hustings event. Mr Johnson, Mr Javid, Andrea Leadsom and Kit Malthouse will be interviewed for about 25 minutes in front of an audience of MPs who identify with the group. Tomorrow Mr Gove, Mr Raab, Mr Hunt and Mr Hancock will face the same.

Questions were raised yesterday over Mr Johnson’s first big domestic policy pledge: a vow to increase funding per pupil at secondary schools, which amounts to only a modest rise.

Mr Johnson, 54, started his campaign with a video aimed at persuading Conservative MPs that he was the candidate they should trust to deliver victory at a general election.

Please check out my campaign launch video. Time to deliver Brexit and unite our fantastic country. I hope you will support me > @BackBoris #BackBoris pic.twitter.com/iRZ8b0flRK

— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) June 3, 2019

In footage from voters’ doorsteps Mr Johnson said: “If I get in, we’ll come out, deal or no deal, on October 31.”

As well as extra funding for schools, Mr Johnson said: “We need more police out there.” He suggested that he could “cut some taxes and you get more money in” to pay for his campaign pledges. “If there is one message in that referendum of 2016, it is that too many people feel left behind, that they are not able to take part fully in the opportunities and success of our country,” Mr Johnson said.

“That’s why now is the time to unite our society and unite our country. To build the infrastructure, to invest in education, to improve our environment and support our fantastic NHS. To lift everyone in our country and, of course, also to make sure that we support our wealth creators and the businesses that make that investment possible.”

Mr Johnson also complained that there was a “yawning funding gap” between schools in different areas of the country, with per-pupil funding in some parts of London at pounds 6,800 while in other parts of the country it was only pounds 4,200. “I pledge significantly to improve the level of per-pupil funding so that thousands of schools get much more per pupil — and to protect that funding in real terms,” he wrote in The Daily Telegraph. It is understood that Mr Johnson would like every secondary school in England to spend at least pounds 5,000 on each pupil.

Under pressure from voters, teachers and heads the government has already changed the pupil-funding formula and added extra funds to cushion the blow for the losers. From September the very least a secondary school will receive is pounds 4,800 per pupil and the average will be much higher.

Only about 35 of the 150 local authority areas will be funding their secondary schools at between pounds 4,800 and pounds 5,000 per pupil, meaning that the bill for Mr Johnson’s bold sounding pledge is a modest pounds 50 million or so. More valuable is his pledge to protect the funding in real terms.

Mr Johnson’s new supporters included Simon Hart, the MP for Carmarthen West, who spearheads the “Brexit delivery group” of mainstream Conservative MPs who backed Theresa May’s Brexit deal and efforts to get it through the Commons.

The Times