Conservative leadership race – live: Boris Johnson dodges hustings despite ridicule from Jeremy Hunt for ducking TV debate
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Your support makes all the difference.Boris Johnson is skipping Conservative leadership hustings with political journalists on Monday morning, hours after refusing to attend Channel 4’s televised debate.
His rival candidates are all participating in the event, which began at 11.10am, but the frontrunner's team claim he is too busy doing debate preparation to attend.
Channel 4 marked the Mr Johnson’s absence from Sunday’s debate with an empty podium.
During the event, Rory Stewart, one of the contenders vying to replace Theresa May, claimed up to 100 Conservative MPs would vote with him to stop Boris Johnson carrying out a no-deal Brexit – but ruled out joining with Labour to topple his government.
The Tory leadership outsider refused to echo senior Tories Philip Hammond and Ken Clarke who could potentially back a vote-of-no-confidence, saying: “I'm not going to take down a Conservative government.”
Questioned by The Independent at hustings in Westminster, Mr Stewart said: “We can stop a no-deal Brexit much more easily than that.
“I, and nearly 100 of my colleagues, would vote to prevent a no-deal Brexit without having to bring down a Conservative government.”
Mr Stewart also ruled out backing a Final Say referendum on Brexit, telling journalists it would be “catastrophic and divisive”.
This liveblog has now closed - but you view the day's events in Westminster below
The hustings between the Conservative leader candidates among Westminster's journalists are now over.
Here are two important stories from the event:
Rory Stewart has condemned part of a controversial Katie Hopkins tweet which attacked Sadiq Khan.
The leadership hopeful said he 100 per cent disagreed with the language, in a tweet posted on Monday.
Mr Stewart's comments come after Conservative Party leadership candidates were asked about Donald Trump choosing to retweet Ms Hopkins' statement.
"This is Khan’s Londonistan," Ms Hopkins wrote, after highlighting some recent stabbings in London.
The term "Londonistan" is often used as a derogatory reference to London's Muslim communities.
Mr Khan, the mayor of London, is a practicing British Muslim.
"I 100% disagree with both the language and the sentiment of the last sentence of this tweet. Can all candidates please confirm the same," Mr Stewart tweeted.
Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, refused to criticise Mr Trump over the retweet during hustings.
“President Trump has his own style and I wouldn’t use those words myself,” Mr Hunt said.
“But the sentiment is enormous disappointment that we have a Mayor of London who has completely failed to tackle knife crime and spent more time on politics than the actual business of making Londoners safer.
“And in that, I 150 per cent agree with the president.”
The foreign secretary's comments were immediately branded “disgusting” by the Muslim Council of Britain.
The controversy over Katie Hopkins' comments and Donald Trump's retweet shows no sign of disappearing.
The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) have now criticised Rory Stewart for condemning Ms Hopkins while refusing to attack the US president.
"Katie Hopkins & her racism is comparatively unimportant - it is the fact that President Trump endorsed her Islamophobic message, which is truly unacceptable," said Miqdaad Versi, the MCB's spokesperson.
"And it is on this, that you remain silent. This is shocking and disappointing."
Gary Streeter, Conservative MP for South West Devon, has backed Sajid Javid to become leader.
"After a weekend of careful reflection (and avoiding all callers) I have decided to back Sajid for leader in the 2nd round. I like his plan for Brexit and his modern approach," he said.
"The party needs a clear sense of direction and he can provide it."
Mr Streeter supported Esther McVey in the first round of voting.
Ms McVey dropped out of the race after coming last in the first round.
Ian Lavery, the Labour Party chairman, has criticised Tom Watson over his call for the party to support a second Brexit referendum.
"Brexit has turned this country into a toxic nation," Mr Lavery said.
"However ignoring the 17.4m leave voters isn't politically smart nor indeed particularly democratic. Is it?"
Mr Watson, Labour's deputy leader, delivered a speech this morning at the Centre for European Reform, arguing that a referendum was the "only way to break the political deadlock" at Westminster.
"We must bring the public back into this decision and we must argue strongly to Remain," he said in a video posted before the speech.
"Our future doesn't need to be Brexit. We can change the future.
"We can put Britain back at the heart of Europe again."
Mr Lavery is close to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has resisted pressure to call for a second referendum.
Mr Watson has repeatedly clashed with the Labour leader's allies over Brexit, which has divided the party and its supporters.
Sayeeda Warsi, the Tory peer, says she has spoken to Jeremy Hunt about his comments regarding Donald Trump and Katie Hopkins.
"I've never shied away from calling out my colleagues for bigotry and racism," she said, adding that the foreign secretary had assured her "that he abhors Katie Hopkins, her disgusting views and everything she stands for".
"He believes the the term Londonistan is offensive and would never endorse sentiments that try and frame Londons knife crime challenge as a racial or religious phenomenon," Ms Warsi said.
Five of the six Conservative leadership candidates were asked during hustings with political journalists about a tweet, sent by Ms Hopkins which attacked Sadiq Khan and referred to the UK capital as "Londonistan".
Donald Trump later retweeted the statement, but Mr Hunt refused to condemn the US president for doing so during the hustings.
Britain is ready to consider “all options available to us” to respond if Iran breaches the terms of its international nuclear deal, Downing Street has said.
Tehran has threatened to break the uranium stockpile limit set in the 2015 deal within the next 10 days, in the latest escalation of tensions with the international community.
The move comes against the backdrop of attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman, blamed by the US and Saudi Arabia on Iran, which has denied responsibility.
Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has said he was disappointed that Rory Stewart was the only candidate in the Conservative leadership contest who had committed to meet existing rules on the public finances.
Speaking at an event in the City of London, he said: "It is a disappointment to me that only one of the candidates remaining in the race, Rory Stewart, has actually signed up to that pledge.
"I would urge the other candidates to do so, to reassure the public that our hard-won reputation for fiscal responsibility is not going to be squandered during the course of this competition."
The political impasse over Brexit threatens to “suffocate” business investment across the UK, with the economy grinding to a halt as a temporary boost from stockpiling comes to an end, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has warned.
The organisation said firms were putting resources into contingency plans, such as stockpiling, rather than investing in measures aimed at economic growth, which is “simply not sustainable”. As a result, the economy is expected to register zero growth in the second quarter of the year, following a 0.5 per cent expansion in the first quarter.
Business investment is forecast to contract at a faster rate this year and recover more slowly in 2020 than expected in previous forecasts, the BCC states in its latest report. The leading business body said political uncertainty – including the growing possibility of a no-deal exit – was expected to “suffocate” investment activity in the near term.
The PM's official spokesman has said Theresa May would not have retweeted Katy Hopkins' comments about "Londonistan", as President Donald Trump has done.
He said: "The Prime Minister would not retweet Katy Hopkins, nor use that language.
"The Prime Minister agrees with the Mayor that knife violence should have no place in London or anywhere else in our country."
Asked whether Ms May watched the leadership hustings on Sunday, the spokesman added "she did not, she was doing box work".
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