James Cleverly pulls out of race for Tory leadership

LONDON: Brexit Minister James Cleverly has pulled out of the Tory leadership race, claiming his fellow MPs were not comfortable with the idea of picking a “relatively new” colleague.The MP for Braintree, who was first elected in 2015, concluded that he was “highly unlikely” to reach the final two candidates chosen by MPs to be put to a final vote of Tory members. His withdrawal leaves 12 runners still in the contest to replace Theresa May, who will quit as Tory leader on Friday.Cleverly said: “I felt that we needed to deliver Brexit and then quickly move the conversation on to other important issues that face the country. I had hoped that the Conservative parliamentary party would support me to be the face and voice of that conversation. To do this I asked them to make a leap of faith, skip a generation and vote for a relatively new MP.“It is clear that, despite much support, particularly from our party’s grassroots, MPs weren’t comfortable with such a move and it has become clear that it is highly unlikely that I would progress to be one of the final two candidates.”

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