Ken Clarke emerges serious candidate to succeed Michael Howard |
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Tue, 30 Aug 2005 09:05
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LONDON - Former chancellor Kenneth Clarke is now a very serious contender for the leadership of the Conservative Party after Tim Yeo withdrew from the race on Saturday.
Yeo backed Mr. Clarke to the fullest making it very clear that he was not in favor of either David Davis; shadow home secretary or David Cameron, shadow education secretary.
“In my view unquestionably the most likely person to defeat Labour and to see off the threat from the Liberal Democrats is Ken Clarke. Ken is the best qualified and most popular of all the potential candidates. Crucially he has the strongest appeal to people who do not currently vote Conservative – the very voters whose support we must regain if we are to win the next election,” Mr. Yeo said. It might look comical that the Tories are debating about leadership issues when Prime Minister Tony Blair and his supposed successor, Chancellor Gordon Brown are still firmly entrenched in the corridors of power in Britain. But the Tories say that once the leadership issue is sorted out, the fringe voters would also return to the Tory fold.
In fact, Mr. Clarke himself was philosophical when he said; “I find it almost comic the number of people who tell me they would vote Tory if I were leader.”
However, analysts say that Mr. Davis and Mr. Cameron are still the top contenders for the job. But crucially, two other contenders have backed Mr. Clarke. Besides Tim Yeo, Michael Portillo who withdrew from the race in May also backed the former chancellor. Liam Fox, the shadow Foreign Secretary also appears to be wavering though he said, "It's still my intention to be part of that contest but we have got such a long wait that the Opposition should be concentrating on opposing the Government." Liam Fox does not think too much about the European Union and he has a mate in Kenneth Clarke. He was reported by the BBC as saying that he would welcome anyone "who accepted the logic of a more Eurosceptic case."
Officially, the contest to succeed Michael Howard is to kick off only at the Tory conference in October.
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