Rifkind reveals campaign team
Former foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind has revealed his campaign team in his bid for leadership of the Conservative party.
It includes Crispin Blunt and Andrew Pelling, and two MPs who had previously backed Kenneth Clarke – Peter Bottomley and Jacqui Lait.
Sir Malcolm’s announcement comes on the day Mr Clarke confirmed that he would run for the leadership for the third time.
Both Mr Clarke and Sir Malcolm served in senior positions in the last Tory government, and are on the left of the party.
Yesterday the former foreign secretary said the party should choose between a ‘one nation’ and a right wing direction – and insisted he would be the candidate to take up the one nation mantle.
The 59-year old has also stressed that he is younger than people thought, and was full of “vitality and energy”.
Meanwhile, Oliver Letwin insisted today he still backed David Cameron who he said was not too inexperienced to lead the party.
Sir Malcolm served as Scottish secretary under Mrs Thatcher and held the posts of defence secretary and foreign secretary under Mr Major, before losing his Edinburgh Pentlands seat in the Labour landslide of 1997.
The 59-year-old returned to parliament in the safe Tory seat of Kensington & Chelsea in May’s general election, and was swiftly promoted to the shadow cabinet.
Although Tim Yeo has indicated he will now not run and will back Mr Clarke, the list of potential candidates still includes David Davis, David Cameron, Liam Fox, Theresa May, Andrew Lansley and David Willetts.
Read profiles of the Tory leadership candidates
