James Cleverley, who took over the education department on Thursday, also said Johnson had not set a timetable for how long he would remain in Downing Street after stepping down as the Tory leadership. He rejected former prime minister John Major’s call to speed up the appointment of a new leader by suspending a final vote by Conservative party members across the country. “I think testing a candidate’s ability to reach beyond the Westminster bubble is incredibly important, so I think it’s an important part of the process,” Smart told Sky News. Potential candidates who would benefit from a full membership contest include Ben Wallace and Penny Mordaunt, who topped a YouGov poll this week of Conservative members. On Monday, elections will be held for the executive of the 1922 Conservative Committee, which will then set the rules and timetable for the leadership contest. Under current rules, MPs will vote in a series of secret ballots – depending on how many candidates there are – with the bottom two going to a members’ vote. Cleverly’s position was echoed on Friday morning by Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, the treasurer of the 1922 Commission, who told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that the vote for the next prime minister was likely to go to party members “Under these circumstances, with the division in the party, I think it’s good that it goes to members so they have an opportunity to have their say and vote.” Clever also said Johnson would not make decisions that would tie his successor’s hands while he remained in No 10. “Government functions go on, and that’s true when you go through a change of leadership, like we’re going to do right now, or if there’s a general election. It’s a very well-established principle,” he told BBC Radio 4. “The prime minister made a clear reference to this in cabinet, that we are not going to do anything that would tie the hands of our successors, we are not going to do anything that would be novel or a big change from the currently set direction of travel.” Smart’s remarks were in stark contrast to George Freeman, one of the last ministers to quit before Johnson made his announcement, who said the tone of the prime minister’s Downing Street speech did not suggest he would spend his time with “quiet humility and contrition.” . “My real concern is that the volatility will fuel a feverish moment of midsummer madness where we elect the wrong person in a hurry because of the volatility,” he said. But the energy around Tory pressure for Johnson to step down this week to make way for another caretaker prime minister appeared to be waning. Caroline Nokes, a former minister who has been one of Johnson’s most consistent critics, told the Today program that it was important to focus on the future by uniting the Conservative party and “getting the economy back on track”. The leadership contest should be over and done with in the coming weeks, he said. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Another former Tory minister, Andrew Mitchell, has said the party’s next leader must be someone “apparently moral” who is “untainted” by Johnson’s “mistakes”. He told the BBC: “We have to have a leader who is untainted, untainted, if you like, by mistakes. Especially in the tone of the government, as well as in some of its action, it needs to be someone clearly experienced. Finally, I think it should be someone who is demonstrably moral and decent.”
