Britain’s ruling Conservatives say 10 candidates will vie to succeed Prime Minister Theresa May as party leader, in an election expected to be dominated by Brexit.
Favourite Boris Johnson, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Environment Secretary Michael Gove and Home Secretary Sajid Javid are among those who will enter this week’s first round of voting by the 313 Conservative lawmakers, says the party’s 1922 Committee, which organises leadership contests.
Meanwhile Hunt set out his pitch to be the “serious leader” the UK needs in an apparent dig at Boris Johnson, as his campaign won the support of Penny Mordaunt and Amber Rudd – two big Cabinet hitters on both sides of the Brexit divide.
Launching his campaign to enter No 10, Hunt made the case that he was the most experienced candidate, while his leaflets made the bold claims that he had “delivered the Olympics” and “negotiated peace talks in Yemen”.
The foreign secretary, who is now second favourite in the race, gave a speech in London, with his wife, Lucia, numerous MPs and other supporters in the audience.
Rudd, the work and pensions secretary and a leading moderate, said Hunt was best placed to break the Brexit impasse, while Mordaunt, the defence secretary, said he had “the experience, values, and a plan” to take the UK out of the EU.
Hunt’s pitch was that he was the best negotiator to deliver Brexit, arguing that his two years as culture secretary before the London Olympics had given him experience of complex projects.
In a warning to his colleagues, he said the next prime minister must deliver Brexit before allowing a general election, saying the failure to leave the EU had “put our country and our party in grave peril”. 
His message that he wanted to avoid a general election was applauded by supportive MPs. “Without a deal, any prime minister who promised to leave by a certain date would have to call a general election to change the parliamentary arithmetic. That is an election we would lose badly. If we fight an election before delivering Brexit, we will be annihilated,” he told the audience.
Earlier Gove pledged a raft of policies targeting “overlooked families and undervalued communities” as he sought to shrug off revelations about drug use and remain in the race to be Britain’s next prime minister.
The environment secretary launched his campaign with a forthright speech, delivered without notes, in which he insisted he was “in it to win it”.
He made a series of digs at the frontrunner Johnson, including criticising his rival’s flagship tax policy to increase the higher-rate tax threshold, which would benefit only those at the upper end of the income scale.
“One thing I will never do as prime minister is to use our tax and benefits system to give the already wealthy another tax cut,” Gove said.
In another implied criticism of Johnson, Gove said he would confront Jeremy Corbyn directly rather than hide in a “bunker”. And he added: “These are serious times; we need a serious leader. The stakes couldn’t be higher, the consequences couldn’t be greater, if we get this wrong.”