Boris Johnson rules himself out of Tory leadership race

Main public face of Brexit makes shock announcement hours after his key ally Michael Gove launched his own campaign
Michael Gove announced a challenge for the top job, on a turbulent morning.
Speaking at a hotel in central London, where he had been expected to launch his candidacy, Johnson gave an upbeat speech, saying the agenda for the next prime minister was for the UK to become a more outward-looking nation that resets its relationship with Europe.

But he went on to say: “Having consulted colleagues and in view of the circumstances in parliament, I have concluded that person cannot be me.”
Despite having been the leading public face in the victorious Vote Leave campaign, Johnson appeared to have concluded that he could not command enough support from his party, after a series of key MPs, including business minister Nick Boles, and pro-Brexit Dominic Raab, defected to the Gove camp.
“My role will be to give every possible support to the next Conservative administration to make sure that we properly fulfil the mandate of the people that was delivered at the referendum and to champion the agenda that I believe in, to stick up for the forgotten people of this country,” he said.
“And, if we do so, if we invest in our children and improve their life chances, if we continue to fuel the engines of social mobility, if we build on the great reforming legacy of David Cameron, if we invest in our infrastructure and we follow a sensible, one-nation Conservative approach that is simultaneously tax-cutting and pro-enterprise, then I believe that this country can win and be better and more wonderful and, yes, greater than ever before.”
Gove announced his candidacy shortly after 9am, after calling a handful of Conservative MPs to his office in Westminster to tell them of his last-minute decision to stand.

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The justice secretary had been expected to throw his weight behind Johnson, but allies said they believed Johnson did not have the “grip and focus” to be prime minister.
Johnson has been noticeably absent from the chamber of the House of Commons since last Thursday’s shock referendum result, and had given little idea of the kind of deal he hoped to do with the other EU member states.
The final showdown is now likely to be between the home secretary, Theresa May, and Gove, who said in a statement on Thursday morning that Johnson “cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead”.
Nominations formally closed at noon, and the chair of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady, announced that there were five candidates, including the work and pensions secretary, Stephen Crabb, the pro-Brexit energy minister Andrea Leadsom and former defence secretary Liam Fox, as well as May and Gove.
Johnson’s backers, who had gathered in the hotel to lend their support to the former mayor, appeared stunned by his announcement, after he spent much of his speech setting out a pitch to be a one nation Tory.
“This is not a time to quail, it is not a crisis, nor should we see it as an excuse for wobbling or self-doubt,” Johnson said of Britain’s vote to leave the EU, before he announced he was not planning to stand.
Ed Vaizey, one of the MPs who attended Thursday morning’s meeting with Gove, said: “He was ready to back Boris; but the closer it got, the harder he thought about it, he thought, it’s not the right person. Follow that through to its conclusion: the logic is, if he doesn’t think Boris can do it, he has to step up to the plate and do it.” Vaizey added: “I think he will be a better prime minister than Theresa May.”