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Hustings tonight for wannabe PMs in front of the ‘One Nation’ Group of Conservative MPs. Sajid Javid first up; he gets a bang of the desks for saying ‘You don’t beat the Brexit Party by becoming the Brexit Party.’
Here’s another line Sajid Javid is using at the hustings: ‘One nation is a term that was coined by a prime minister who was a bit of an outsider. Pick a prime minister who is also a bit of an outsider!’
These hustings, by the way, to pick our next Prime Minister — are happening in private — journalists are excluded
Rory Stewart is next in — gets polite round of applause on arrival
Robust discussion between reporters and Conservative officials and MPs about why reporters — or even a single reporter on behalf of the rest of us — is not allowed in to observe
Sajid Javid tells his colleagues...’If we don’t look like change, voters will go for change in the form of Corbyn’ and also says ‘I’m not from Conservative party central casting.’
The party argues this process is for MPs at the moment, not a broader audience during these hustings.
One source suggests @RoryStewartUK has told MPs he wouldn’t have offered the DUP money as part of the confidence and supply arrangement that props up the Conservatives in government
One source in Team Javid said it wasn’t them who wanted the press excluded tonight
Jacob Rees Mogg and John Redwood have now turned up at the hustings
Rory Stewart leaves and doesn’t talk to us, Boris Johnson arrives to applause and some banging on the wall
‘Get Brexit done or face the virtual extinction of our party’ Boris Johnson tells Conservative MPs (if I heard it right, listening through the wall)
Boris Johnson says the Brady Amendment is the basis for a ‘managed exit.’
Boris Johnson said people should be ‘prepared for some disruption’ with a no deal Brexit
Tonight’s hustings are being chaired by Katy Balls of The Spectator
Boris Johnson: ‘we have the weakest leader of the Opposition in my lifetime. Get Brexit done. Lance that boil.’
Boris Johnson gets a two big laughs in a row from the room — the first of any of the candidates to do so
‘To have a second referendum would be deeply undemocratic’ he says, adding the 2016 one was ‘divisive.’
Boris Johnson says the ‘pressure will grow’ for another vote if there is another Brexit delay
Boris Johnson: The Northern Ireland border.... ‘under no circumstances would i institute any kind of controls.’
Boris Johnson: ‘the obvious way out of the Brexit morass is to take that out’ — a reference to the backstop
Boris Johnson returns again to the Brady Amendment as the solution to getting a deal
James Duddridge said Sir Nicholas Soames, listening to Boris Johnson, ‘has his head in his hands like all his family has died.’ Ken Clarke sat ‘with his arms folded’
Former Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson bounds out with an effervescent endorsement of Johnson: ‘the only one who can put the Brexit Party back in its box...he is the one who can save the party...the audience recognised you had an election winner.’
For most of Boris Johnson’s session, someone had their foot in the door propping it open about half an inch...making it easier for us to listen.
Nonetheless a gig like this is the hearing equivalent of the optician asking you read that pesky last line of tiny letters
Estimate is 42 in the room for Andrea Leadsom. 81 for Sajid Javid. Biggest number for Boris Johnson
