Replace Theresa May with Michael Gove, says top Tory donor

Environment Secretary emerging as
frontrunner to succeed prime minister and unite Tories

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Crispin Odey, a hedge fund manager who backed the Leave
campaign, said May had shown she cannot “carry Brexit through” and
claimed only the environment secretary had the skills to make a
success of Britain’s exit from the EU and appeal to voters.

“He’s the only minister who is still being a minister,” Odey
said. “Michael has got lots of attributes that make him a
non-traditional Tory. He is very aware that he has to appeal not
just to the wealthy, but also more broadly”.

The intervention is “a stark sign of the frustration among
prominent Brexit supporters over the government’s handling of
negotiations with the EU”, says The Guardian, which reports a growing
sense both within the Tory party and across Westminster that the
former Vote Leave figurehead is the best placed minister to deliver
a successful Brexit and lead the party out of its current malaise.

Last month Gove spoke at the opening of a new progressive
conservative think tank, Onward, alongside Scottish Conservative
leader Ruth Davidson, who has also been widely talked up as a
future leader of the Tory party.

This led many to position the pair as a “Tory dream ticket”, and speculate that they
had struck a deal to install Gove as an interim prime minister
before making way for Davidson in time for the 2022 general
election.

Last month, The Sun said as many as 30 MPs were trying to
gather support for the “plot”.

It represents a remarkable turnaround for Gove, says the BBC . His botched attempt to succeed David
Cameron after the referendum was widely condemned, but he has since
enjoyed something of a renaissance as environment secretary.