Cameron won’t endorse anyone for Tory leadership

Lord Cameron of Shelford will not be putting his name to any recommendation for the leadership of the Tory party, The Telegraph can disclose. 
 
The former prime minister, who re-emerged at the front rank of British politics in 2020 after being appointed as Rishi Sunak’s foreign secretary, will not take sides during the contest. 
 
This will hopefully not come as a shock to any of the centrist hopefuls, Tugendhat, Mel Stride who perhaps might have been interested in the support of the moderate Tory peer. 
 
Newer surveys point to an uptick for Lord Cameron’s slate, but by a mere thin margin; in contrast, endorsements from Liz Truss, Mr Sunak, or even Boris Johnson were deemed to be counterproductive rather than beneficial. 
 
According to an Ipsos poll, 32 percent of British respondents believes that political support from Lord Cameron would mean a positive shift in the candidate’s electoral fortune, 31 per cent replied it will be negative. 
 
Meanwhile, only 14% of respondents stated that their fortunes would improve if Ms Truss endorsed their preferred candidate; 37% said the same about Mr Sunak and 38% about Mr Johnson. 
 
Former prime minister Ms Truss said in her interview with The Daily T podcast that the new party leader had to ‘fight the establishment’ and ‘blob, ‘ but she did not select any out of six options. 
 
Asked who Lord Cameron would be supporting, a source close to him told The Telegraph: “Any leader of any political party will dread this, but as a former leader, he is not backing anyone. [It is] important he remains impartial. ” 
 
The Tory peer, who was at the helm at the time of the party from 2005 to 2016, did not support anyone in either of the two leadership elections of 2022. He also restrained from commenting in 2016 when Theresa May won the contest, and again in 2019 when Mr Johnson got the job. 
 
As for this year’s contest, Mr Johnson is also employing a strategy of neutrality; an associate of the former prime minister stated last month that he would not endorse any of the candidates. 
 
He did the same in 2022, stating that at the time he ‘Would not like to spoil anybody’s prospects by volunteering support. 
 
Whereas Lord Cameron and Mr Johnson are yet to openly support candidates questing for the leadership since exiting leadership themselves, others have gone further. 
 
Sir Iain served as the leader of the Tories from 2001 to 2003, and he supported Ms Truss for the Tory leadership in the first leadership contest this year before flipping for Mr Sunak. 
 
Lord Hague, who led the party from 1997 to 2001, endorsed Jeremy Hunt in 2019 and Mr Sunak in 2022; Lord Howard, the Conservative leader from 2003 to 2005, supported Mr Sunak two years ago. 
 
On Tuesday, the former Tory cabinet minister David Gauke said that the candidates seem to be mimicking ideas from Sir Keir Starmer’s campaign. 
 
“All of the candidates are looking at a very successful model that was employed there in 2020, which was Keir Starmer who ran as a continuity candidate for the Labour Party,” he told Times Radio. 
 
“Then when he won, or about a year after he won, changed strategy, then did demonstrate some leadership, was a change leader trying to modernise successfully his party and that produced success. ” 
 
“At the moment, you feel as if all of the candidates are too scared to do that, they’re too scared of the party membership. Maybe get through on the other side, and then who knows what you can do. But at the moment, by and large, they feel as if they’re just wanting to get there first and then will do the modernisation afterwards. ”