Rifkind stresses his youthfulness
Tory leadership hopeful Sir Malcolm Rifkind has tried to reinvigorate his campaign by insisting he was younger than many people thought him to be.
The 59-year old former foreign secretary said he was the same generation as leadership front-runner David Davis, and that he was full of “vitality and energy”.
“A lot of people think that because I was a colleague of Ken Clarke, 65, and Michael Howard, 64, I am the same age – I am not,” he told ITN.
He said the reason people made that mistake was because he had risen to a senior position at a young age.
Sir Malcolm was responding to suggestions by former Daily Telegraph editor Sir Max Hastings that he was simply “too old” for the top job.
Age has certainly become a factor in the leadership race, with Michael Howard deciding to stand down after the general election because he would be too old to be prime minister at the next election.
Some have suggested former chancellor Kenneth Clarke, 65, is also too old to lead the party; while youthful David Cameron, 38, has the opposite problem with critics saying he is simply too inexperienced to lead the party and the nation.
But the shadow work and pensions secretary said the party should choose a strategy before picking a new leader. He advocated a return to a “One Nation” philosophy that could appeal to a wider range of people.
Sir Malcolm served as Scottish secretary under Mrs Thatcher and held the posts of defence secretary and foreign secretary under Mr Major, before losing his Edinburgh Pentlands seat in the Labour landslide of 1997.
The 59-year-old returned to parliament in the safe Tory seat of Kensington & Chelsea in May’s general election, and was swiftly promoted to the shadow cabinet.
The crowded list of potential candidates includes David Davis, David Cameron, Liam Fox, Theresa May, Andrew Lansley, David Willetts and Tim Yeo.
Read profiles of the Tory leadership candidates.
