WORCESTER’S MP Robin Walker has backed Theresa May to become the next Conservative Leader and Prime Minister and said she’s currently the only candidate ready to ‘take on the mantle of leading’ the country.
Yesterday (June 30) Mrs May, the longest serving Home Secretary, launched her leadership bid to succeed David Cameron who will be standing down in September after Britain voted to leave the European Union.
Mr Walker has thrown his support behind Mrs May as he said she is a ‘strong and proven leader’ ready to ‘take the country forward.’
Mrs May will go up against four other candidates vying to become the next Tory leader and Prime Minister, including Justice Secretary Michael Gove, former Defence Secretary Liam Fox, Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb and Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom.
Mr Walker said: “I have been convinced that we need a strong and proven leader to take the country forward and although I don’t belong to any faction within the party, I have become more and more convinced over recent days that Theresa is that candidate.
“For tough negotiations we need the toughest possible negotiator on behalf of our country and Theresa has proven many times over that she is that.
“Whether it was standing up to the police Federation and taking on vested interests over Hillsborough, succeeding in deporting Abu Qatada where others had failed or defending Gary MacKinnon, she has shown time and time again that she is prepared to be tough in the right cause.
“This decision is about more than the leadership of a party, it is about the future of our country.
“There might be other candidates I could imagine backing for a general election or to come up with new policy if we had the luxury of time in which to do it but there is only one candidate who I can see as being ready to take on the mantle of leading the United Kingdom right now.”
The city’s MP also claimed the next Prime Minister doesn’t need to be someone who voted leave in the EU Referendum and said Mrs May would go ‘toe-to-toe’ with Angela Merkel in EU negotiations.
“There are those who say that only someone who voted Leave can run the negotiations to take us out of the EU but I profoundly disagree,” he added.
“Theresa has made it clear that there is no going back on the referendum but I am equally clear we need someone who will be listened to and respected around the negotiating table.
“We need someone who can go toe to toe with Angela Merkel and it is clear to me that Theresa can be that person.”
In the coming weeks, Conservative MPs will whittle down the five candidates to two and then Conservative members will have the final say in a postal ballot on who becomes the party’s next leader.
It’s expected the new leader and Prime Minister will be announced on September 9.
