Defence Secretary rules himself out of PM race

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has ruled himself out of the Tory leadership race.

"As the party starts the process of looking for a new leader, I would like to put on the record that I will not be letting my name go forward as a candidate," he tweeted.

"I am privileged to be the UK Defence Secretary and the current threat requires stability in that office."

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"The reasons I gave last time for not standing, have not changed.

"I will be looking to all candidates to recognise that you cannot have economic security at home without national security.

"This requires real investment for our Armed Forces and intelligence agencies," he ended.

The race for Prime Minister began again on Thursday after Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned as the Conservative party leader just 44 days after being elected to that position.

Mr Wallace also said he was "leaning towards" Boris Johnson as his choice to replace Liz Truss in Downing Street.

Ruling himself out of the contest, the Defence Secretary pointed to Mr Johnson's record on defence spending and cited the mandate the former prime minister won in 2019.

Mr Wallace argued that without national security, there is "no economic security" and said he believes it is "important" that whoever puts themselves forward for the top job indicates that.

But he said he also has to "recognise the issue of the mandate".

"This will be potentially our third prime minister since the general election of 2019, that means we have to think about that legitimacy question that the public will be asking themselves, and also about who could win the next election – that's obviously important for any political party at the time," he told broadcasters.

"So at the moment, I would lean towards Boris Johnson.

"I think he will still have some questions to answer around, obviously, that investigation, but I know when I was Secretary of State for Defence, he invested in defence, he supported me, he supported the actions this country has taken to keep us safe," Mr Wallace added.