Sir Graham Brady has confirmed Boris Johnson could have stood for Tory party leader again after earning the minimum of 100 votes required.
In an exclusive interview with GB News today (Sunday), Mr Brady, the MP for Altrincham and Sale West, said the former PM decided against going up against Rishi Sunak.
Speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News he said: “We verified that (he had the numbers). His team asked us to do that and confirm that they had 110 parliamentary party members nominating him, so he could have gone forward – he chose not to.
“Now I’m afraid in any election, if you end up with one candidate, that person is duly elected, that is a democratic process as long as the arrangements for the election allow fair and free nomination of other people. We did.
“My view both as a long-standing Conservative MP and as chairman of the motion to interview committee, I want Conservative Party leaders, especially Prime Ministers to succeed in office.
“I don’t want to see these situations arise where people feel the need to step aside. Obviously, if everything is going well, they don’t. So, I would prefer that we hadn’t had those circumstances arise.”
Mr Brady also shared his views on the Government’s current migrant policy, saying he advocates Australia’s approach to tackling illegal immigrants entering the country.
On the UK approach he said: “It obviously hasn’t been working. The legislative framework that’s in place doesn’t work, which is why we need new legislation, and the government will be bringing that forward very shortly.
“What I understand, what we will be seeking to replicate broadly, is the Australian approach over many years under different parties; where they said if you arrive illegally in Australia, you will never have the legal right to remain.
“And that would be the biggest factor in ending the pull and the attraction for people to go to these people smuggling gangs to get them over the channel, because they would know it was a pointless exercise. So I think that tough legislation is important.
“In my constituency, people were very concerned at the prospect of their initially being nearly 120 young men, all unemployed – because they’re not allowed to work – in the middle of a residential area, with a lot of schools around it with school buses.
“I lobbied to make sure that we had families in the hotel rather than single young men. And broadly, I think most of my constituents have recognised that was a good outcome.
“It’s not ideal that we’ve got such large numbers of illegal immigrants coming into the country. But given that it was a much better outcome for the area to have families there rather than single young men.”
Source: GB News
