Conservative leadership candidate Jeremy Hunt said his colleague Esther McVey would be deputy prime minister if he were to become prime minister.
Mr Hunt likened the Tatton MP to John Prescott as Tony Blair’s deputy when he made the announcement on BBC’s Sunday Morning.
He said: “I also recognise that the leader of a political party has to win elections, and that means a broad appeal, so just as Tony Blair had John Prescott to broaden his appeal as his deputy prime minister, I will have Esther McVey as my deputy prime minister.
“She has won a lot of elections against Labour in the north, I have won them against Lib Dems in the south and I think we will be a formidable campaigning team.”
Liverpool-born Ms McVey, the MP for Tatton, is the founder of the ‘Blue Collar Conservatism’ group which promises to ‘champion working people’.
She is married to fellow Tory MP Philip Davies, another committed Brexiteer.
Nine people have now launched leadership campaigns with Penny Mordaunt the latest to bid to be Prime Minister and Tory leader.
The trade minister’s pitch deliberately sought to distance herself from the personality-driven leadership of Boris Johnson, including by not appearing in, or voicing her own campaign video.
She joins former Health Secretaries Sajid Javid and Jeremy Hunt officially joined the race late last night with interviews in the Sunday Telegraph.
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi also announced his bid. The trio join former Chancellor Rishi Sunak; foreign affairs committee chairman Tom Tugendhat; Attorney General Suella Braverman; former Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch; and Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in the race for the top job
