Tory MP for Gainsborough says he might stand for the leadership

Leigh ‘considers’ Tory leadership

Leigh ‘considers’ Tory leadership

Conservative MP Edward Leigh has said he is “considering” standing for the Tory leadership – because none of the current runners are radical enough.

The chairman of the public accounts committee today indicated he could throw his hat in an already crowded ring in a bid to make politics more “exciting”.

When asked if he would stand for the top job, he replied: “I’m considering it. I’m not saying I’m going to, but what I am saying is that there is a substantial group of Tory MPs who want this to be an exciting election … They want a radical social agenda.”

Mr Leigh believes his Cornerstone Group of MPs have such an agenda, offering flax taxes and tax relief for private health insurance, coupled with an emphasis on moral values.

“When we used to win elections under Margaret Thatcher, we used to convince people that they would end up paying less taxes,” he told the ITN News channel.

“If we the Conservative party said: ‘We will deliver to you, the average family in this country, at least £1,000 a year back, in your pocket,’ now you might call that a tax cut, I would call it exciting politics.

“If you have a completely wishy-washy agenda, if you try to reach out to the so-called centre ground and then you shift back to the right in the last few weeks [before an election], as has happened in recent years, you are going to get nowhere.”

Liam Fox, Ken Clarke and Malcolm Rifkind have formally announced they will run for the Tory leadership, and while David Davis and David Cameron have yet to officially launch their campaigns, they are also widely expected to try for Michael Howard’s job.