The Londoner: Ministers jockey for the top job

WITH No 10 in paralysis, Tory MPs' political energies are being swept up on the carousel of leadership gatherings. Home Secretary Sajid Javid, far right, and Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, right, are cancelling ministerial meetings to lobby MPs for votes. Javid is, says one source, having up to 10 meetings a day, including a “quite aggressive” focus on Scottish Tories.

Similarly, Jeremy Hunt’s team is emailing MPs, saying “the Foreign Secretary would like to meet with you”. Discussions with Hunt, we hear, are being held in his room behind the Speaker’s chair, next door to the Prime Minister’s Commons office.

While Parliament is the scene of much horse trading, heavy weights have chosen more discreet locations. Michael Gove’s team popped up in The Surprise pub in Chelsea recently. They also organised a dinner at the house of Mel Stride, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, with Gove turning up as a “surprise” guest.

Though Boris Johnson’s team claims that “95 per cent” of his meetings take place in his office, they are also not averse to the odd dinner-party pitch. Colin Clark MP was invited to a Boris Johnson dinner at Jacob Rees-Mogg’s Westminster house. He says he was greeted at the door by one of Rees-Mogg’s sons, still in school uniform. Clark asked the child what he was wearing. “My school cravat,” came the reply. Another source says they were served Gusbourne English sparkling wine, owned by former Tory deputy chair Lord Ashcroft.

Rees-Mogg said on Peston last night that he was not Johnson’s manager: “I wouldn’t be so presumptuous.” But he added that Johnson “needs 105 votes to get into the final round”.

This focus on numbers mean MPs are being wined and dined by multiple candidates, with wooing going on “since March”. A well-fed Tory MP tells us it’s “like being on Take Me Out”.

Black backs Boris 'The Charlatan'

Former Telegraph owner Conrad Black, who was imprisoned for fraud, has written in The Spectator — which he used to own — to back its former editor, and his protégé, Boris Johnson for Tory leader. “The time for Boris has come,” Black writes. “He is in some ways a scoundrel and a charlatan, but so have many great leaders been.” When Johnson announced he would stand for Parliament while still editor of The Spectator, Black threw a party for him. The invitations had examples of Johnson’s broken promises and there were cut-outs of BoJo in the room.

---

One former Tory MP finds himself sanguine about today’s European elections, telling The Londoner: “Stanley Baldwin described the power of the press as like a harlot – power without the responsibility. That’s Nigel Farage tomorrow — sleep with him if you like, but just don’t marry him.”

---

Flora Gill says she doesn’t worry about her mother, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd, as the government dissolves into chaos. “Mum doesn’t need any help from me. She is strong and capable.” She tells us. “[We have] quite a normal mother-daughter relationship. She’s looking out for me. I don’t need to look out for her.”

Mum's the word when Tate is in public

Catherine Tate says her efforts to be discreet in public are sabotaged by her mother, who “will really go out of her way to make sure that people do recognise me”.

The comedian and actress told David Tennant’s podcast that when they are in the supermarket: “Mum will deliberately go to a different aisle in Waitrose, and then shout ‘Catherine!’ Not a week goes by when I don’t get in a cab and the driver will go, ‘I had your mum in the back last week’.”

A tip, perhaps, for Kris Jenner following Kim Kardashian’s fury yesterday that no one recognised her in her local burger bar.

DiCaprio steps out for green racers and Eugenie reveals an elephant obsession

In Cannes, Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag threw a lavish dinner for Hollywood friends to celebrate the launch of his racing documentary And We Go Green.

Singer Dua Lipa chatted with Orlando Bloom and Leonardo DiCaprio, who was at the film festival promoting Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is set in Tinseltown in 1969 and co-stars Brad Pitt as DiCaprio’s stunt double.

Back in London, princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were promoting conservation at The Animal Ball Art Show, presented by the Elephant Family charity. “Elephants have been a part of my life since I was young,” Eugenie told guests in Mayfair. “When you go home tonight, if you have an elephant on your bed, like I do. Or on your wall, like I do, or everywhere in your house, like I do. Just take a moment and realise that these elephants need all the help they can get.” Amen.

SW1A

RUPA Huq has finally identified the “female Cabinet minister” who mistook her for Thangam Debbonaire because of their shared skin colour. At the time, Huq, below, refused to name and shame but asked if “the conclusion... [to] draw from this is that we are all just interchangeable?” Yesterday Huq was more explicit, announcing, as Andrea Leadsom resigned, that the offending minister is “no longer in Cabinet”. Her office declined to comment.

---

MPs are warning against senior civil servants declaring their political allegiances after leaving posts, following former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell's declaration that he would vote for the Lib Dems. Neil O’Brien claimed it would be “very bad for the civil service”. Tory colleague Jesse Norman agreed: “This is such an important point.”

---

A reader gets in touch to enquire about the wellbeing of the therapy dogs who visited Parliament this week. “Do they now need therapy having been in contact with politicians?”

Quote of the Day

'Ooh, it's just like the finale of Game of Thrones all over again'

Labour's Andrew Gwynne enjoyed Andrea Leadsom's resignation last night