Worcester MP Robin Walker has announced that he will be supporting former Chancellor Rishi Sunak to become the new leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister following the resignation of Liz Truss. Robin supported Rishi in the previous leadership election, and has reiterated that support for this contest.
Mr Walker said: "I think it is very sad for Liz and those around her but I think it was becoming clear that she hadn't got the support of the parliamentary party for the platform which she was putting forward and she had already had to make significant changes.
"I think if she had stuck to and tried to deliver on the 2019 manifesto she would have been in a better place.
"It is clearly not good for the party and it's not good for the country to be in this situation.
"We now need to focus on getting out of it and through it as swiftly as possible and getting a new leader in place who can command a parliamentary majority, can actually deliver on that manifesto.
"For me, the prime candidate is Rishi Sunak,"
"He has shown during the leadership race a command of the fact and the issues
"I think unfortunately some of his concerns that he raised about the approach that Liz and Kwasi (Kwarteng) wanted to take with the economy have been born out by the circumstances.
"I didn't speak about this earlier because I didn't want to be seen as a sore loser.
"At the end of the day, he did predict that we needed to focus on inflation first and I am hopeful that if he can set out a program to deliver that and to deliver on our 2019 manifesto, that he will be the person to bring our party together."