FORMER TORY MINISTER Ken Clarke has been caught on camera tearing into the field of candidates lining up to replace David Cameron as Prime Minister.
Appearing unaware that he was being filmed, the veteran politician made the comments while speaking to former British foreign secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
Across the board Clarke seemed to be pretty down on the lineup vying for the leadership of the Conservative party, and has come under fire for referring to frontrunner Theresa May as a “bloody difficult woman”.
The discussion is instigated by Rifkind, who says: “I don’t mind who wins, as long as Gove goes and becomes third [sic]“.
Clarke then says: “I don’t think the membership will vote for Gove.”
He then goes on:
I remember being in a discussion once about something to do in somewhere like Syria or Iraq and he was so wild that I remember exchanging looks with Liam Fox, who’s much more right wing than me.
I think if Michael Gove was prime minister we’d go to war with at least three countries at once.
Clarke also showed himself to be no fan of Gove’s fellow Leave campaigner Boris Johnson, saying:
He did us all a favour by getting rid of Boris. The idea of Boris as prime minister is ridiculous.
He also reflected that Johnson’s fellow Leave campaigner and current dark horse in the Tory party leadership race Andrea Leadsom was not really in favour of leaving the European Union.
On this he said:
She’s not one of the tiny band of lunatics who think we can have a sort of glorious economic future outside the single market.
On frontrunner Theresa May, Clarke was more favourable, saying: “I get on all right with her and she is good” before saying that she had perhaps been too long in the one department.
He also said: “Theresa is a bloody difficult woman, but you and I worked with Margaret Thatcher.”
Sky News has this evening come under fire for choosing to broadcast the remarks, and according to the Guardian, friends of the Conservative party veteran have said that his staff have urged him to complain about the remarks being broadcast – something he has declined to do.
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