COULD Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood be considering a run to become the next Conservative leader?
The defence minister has been enjoying an increasing national profile during the past few weeks of the Brexit crisis.
He was named in the Sunday Times as one of the MPs who “may run to raise their profiles” if the prime minister were to quit.
And his Wikipedia page currently says: “There has been recent endorsement from many parts of the Conservative Party for Ellwood to be in the running for next leader of the Tory party”. However, the source cited for that quote is a Spectator article which puts the odds of him leading the party at 100-1.
Mr Ellwood, 52, was born in New York to British parents and was educated in Bonn and Vienna. He went to Sandhurst and served in the Royal Green Jackets, reaching the rank of captain before taking up politics after his return to civilian life.
He married lawyer Hannah Ryan in 2005 and the pair have two sons.
The minister recently gave one of his most in-depth interviews yet, to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, hosted by Nick Robinson.
He spoke of his efforts to save the life of PC Keith Palmer, who was fatally stabbed in the terror attack on Westminster two years ago. And he told of the experience of going to Bali to identify the body of his brother Jonathan, a teacher killed in the terrorist bombing there in 2002.
Last week, Mr Ellwood appeared on BBC1’s Question Time, the day after Theresa May blamed her Brexit problems on indecision by Parliament.
“This is the biggest generational decision we face and it’s one of the most complicated as well,” he told the audience in Belfast.
He added: “If we were to ask this audience, or indeed the country or Parliament, there would be so many different views as to what ‘leave’ actually means and that’s been the difficulty all along.
“This is the time now where all of us have got to ask ourselves, with the clock ticking down, what is best for Britain? What is the art of the possible? What is the answer that allows us all to step back from the positions that perhaps we want, that we desire, that we thought of during that referendum and what can actually take us through and unite the country, not just those that voted to leave?”
Some on social media accused him of waffling, while others mocked his decision to appear on the programme without a jacket and with shirt sleeves rolled up. One Twitter user suggested he was “cosplaying as a junior doctor”.
The minister’s profile has been raised largely by his Brexit position. He was among those who were expected to sacrifice their government jobs rather than accept a no-deal Brexit.
He defied the government by abstaining on a crucial vote over the issue – a decision which would have earned him the sack in normal times.
But that Brexit stance has not necessarily been popular in his constituency, where 53.5 per cent voted in 2016 to leave the EU.
The MP has pointed out that his mail bag contains passionate pleas for him to take each possible course of action from revoking article 50 to leaving without a deal.
And he revealed that recently, it contained a postcard addressing him as “Oi, t****r Remoaner”.
That missive warned: “You dare to thwart Brexit and dare to stop a no deal, dare to postpone or delay Brexit and you and all you t*****r MPs will burn when we march, blockade and bring London to its f*****g knees. This country is at Civil War."
