Johnson gains more support in Conservative leadership race

Former rival Hancock gives favorite his backing

Boris Johnson's hopes of success in the race to become the next leader of the Conservative Party and British prime minister have received a boost after he won the backing of former candidate Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

The initial list of 10 candidates to replace Theresa May in 10 Downing Street is now down to six, after three were eliminated at the first round of Conservative voting, and Hancock, regarded as a relative modernizer in the party, withdrew from the race.

Writing in the Times newspaper, Hancock said it was time for the party to unite behind Johnson as soon as possible, as he was the clear favorite to win the contest.

"Having considered all the options, I'm backing Boris Johnson as the best candidate to unite the Conservative party, so we can deliver Brexit and then unite the country behind an open, ambitious, forward-looking agenda, delivered with the energy that gets stuff done,"he wrote.

"We need to unite behind him with a strong team that can bring the party together and then bring the country together… Sooner rather than later".

But he added that he expected Johnson to remain true to pledges to pursue a policy of ruling by consent, and supporting business, something he has previously been accused of not taking seriously.

"I have been reassured, again emphatically, that a Boris administration will be pro-business, pro-enterprise, supportive of the aspirational and the international,"he said.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove told the BBC it was"disappointing, naturally",that Hancock had chosen to back Johnson over him, but said he did remain a serious contender in the race.

Gove was one of the organizers of Johnson's bid to be party leader in 2016, before he pulled out leaving May to become prime minister, and in his own 2019 leadership launch speech, Gove made a point of mentioning Johnson's withdrawal last time.

"At the moment, yes of course it is the case that Boris is the frontrunner," Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today program."But we need to make sure that he is tested, and we have two candidates who go forward, if Boris is one of them, who we know are being capable of being prime minister from day one."

The mentioning of being tested is another deliberate reference, after Johnson was the only one of the six remaining candidates who chose not to take part in a live televized leadership debate on Sunday night. In his absence, an empty podium was left on the stage.

On Monday, all the candidates faced a grilling from political journalists at Westminster, but again, Johnson opted not to take part, although he will join the other candidates for a BBC debate on Tuesday.

Hancock's endorsement of Johnson does not necessarily mean those MPs who had previously backed his candidacy will follow his suggestion, however, and one of them, Scottish MP Paul Masterton, has already said he will now be backing Rory Stewart, who has explicitly ruled out leaving the European Union at the end of October without a deal.

Stewart is the least experienced of the candidates and started as a rank outsider, but his relative lack of political baggage and direct, accessible campaigning style have seen him win surprising levels of support.Whatever the outcome of the race, his public profile has risen hugely and career-wise he could end up as a long-term winner from the process.

Further ballots of Conservative Party MPs will take place on Wednesday and Thursday to whittle the list down to the final two. Conservative Party members nationwide will then have one month to make their choice on their next leader.