Letwin backs Cameron as next Tory leader
Shadow environment secretary Oliver Letwin has declared his support for David Cameron as the next Conservative leader.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Letwin, the former shadow chancellor, said 38-year-old Mr Cameron had the “instincts” and the talents to return the party to Downing Street.
Praising the shadow education secretary for creating a vision of a “civilised Britain” during a recent speech, Mr Letwin welcomed Mr Cameron’s stated intention to combine free markets with a stronger society.
“I hope that he will stand. If he does, despite my admiration for other friends and colleagues, I will back him,” Mr Letwin said.
The declaration of support from Mr Letwin, seen by some as an intellectual heavyweight, will provide a coup for Mr Cameron, who is rapidly emerging as the main leadership challenger to the bookies’ favourite, David Davis.
Despite coming out in support of Mr Cameron, Mr Letwin used the Sunday Telegraph article to praise other potential Tory leadership contenders and stressed that Michael Howard’s “controversial” decision to delay his departure as head of the party until the autumn had given the Conservatives the opportunity for “intelligent and much-needed constructive discussion” about its future.
“All of this fills me with optimism about the future of our party,” he said.
Meanwhile, another of the potential Tory leadership contenders has hinted that the principles of 1980s Thatcherism are partly to blame for some of the problems currently facing British society.
Writing in The Observer, right-of-centre MP Liam Fox warned that Britain was becoming a “broken society”, with the economic policies of the Thatcher era potentially linked to a decline in family life.
“The 1980s forces which generated economic revival also significantly increased social and geographical mobility. This markedly reduced the role of the extended family and the security it represented,” said Dr Fox.
“Britain has lost some of the building blocks of a strong and stable society.”
Warning that the country faced the “prospect of a lost generation, failed by family and education”, Dr Fox said the “root causes” of society’s ills must be tackled.
