Penny Mordaunt joins Conservative leadership race – UK politics live
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Transport secretary Grant Shapps is up on Sophy Ridge on Sunday now. He says there’s three things needed now for leading the country and in order for the Tories to win the next general election.
“[They are] going to have to have complete competence, going to have to be able to communicate and going to have to be able to campaign,” he says.
Shapps says his track record as a former Conservative party chairman and the way he has ran the Department for Transport “very competently” shows he’s in possession of these skills.
“I think actually, I can use the same approach with the country,” he said.
He added that he believed he played a part in convincing Johnson to step down, saying he wanted to make sure the prime minister was “getting the facts” as “things were coming to a close”.
“I always just think that the best thing to do is be completely candid and just say it as it is,” he said.
“One of the problems in being a leader, eventually you get people around you who will just tell you what you want to hear.
“I just wanted to make sure that he was getting the facts, and that was my conversation with him. He listened carefully and, as we know, the next morning said that he would stand down.”
Asked if he thought his intervention was “part of the reason” for Johnson’s departure, he said: “Yes, I mean, it’s presenting the reality. So, yes, of course.”