SAJID Javid and Jeremy Hunt are the latest contenders to throw their hat in the ring for the Conservative leader.
The former health and foreign secretaries made their announcements after Grant Shapps and Nadhim Zahawi while Liz Truss is expected to add her name to the growing list on Monday.
Declaring their candidacies in The Telegraph, Mr Hunt and Mr Javid both said they would not only scrap the former chancellor’s plans to raise corporation tax from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in April, but reduce the rate to 15 per cent.
Mr Zahawi, Rishi Sunak’s successor, had said earlier this week that “everything is on the table” when questioned over the tax rise.
The leadership contenders’ timescales for the change are different, with Mr Hunt slashing the tax to 15p in his first autumn Budget, while Mr Javid would set a “glide path”.
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Mr Javid also said he would scrap the unpopular National Insurance rise, which was introduced while he was health secretary to fund the NHS and social care.
He told The Sunday Telegraph: “I’m not sure I would have done it if I had been chancellor, but I was focused on my job and I’m not trying to do other people’s jobs for them.”
Foreign secretary Liz Truss “will enter the Tory leadership race” after Mr Zahawi and Mr Shapps launched their bids earlier on Saturday.
Ms Truss will seek to advocate “classic Conservative principles”, and could declare her candidature as soon as Monday, reports say.
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Her plans include reversing the Government’s national insurance rise, cutting corporation tax and introducing measures to ease the cost-of-living crisis, the Mail on Sunday reports.
Mr Zahawi also threw his hat into the ring for Tory leader – joining his predecessor Rishi Sunak.
The newly-appointed Chancellor was the second Cabinet minister to declare their ambition in the space of an hour.
Launching his campaign, Mr Zahawi pledged to lower taxes for individuals, families and business, boost defence spending and continue with education reforms that he started in his previous role.
Earlier, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that after “careful consideration” and discussion with colleagues and family, he would not stand to be party leader and the next prime minister.
In addition to Mr Zahawi, Mr Shapps, Mr Sunak, and Ms Braverman, ex-minister Kemi Badenoch and senior Tory Tom Tugendhat have launched their own bids.
Another potential front-runner is trade minister Penny Mordaunt.
In his bid for leader, Mr Zahawi said: “Society is a reflection of its leaders, and under Margaret Thatcher, the Britain I knew was full of boundless optimism and opportunity.
“That has been lost and a change is needed. The country is confronting some of the greatest challenges for a lifetime.
“My aim is a simple one: to provide the opportunities that were afforded to my generation, to all Britons, whoever you are and wherever you come from. To steady the ship and to stabilise the economy.
“Thanks to Brexit, we are now a free nation. Let’s not just talk about the opportunities that follow, let’s take them.
“If a young boy, who came here aged 11 without a word of English, can serve at the highest levels of Her Majesty’s Government and run to be the next prime minister, anything is possible.”
Citing his experience fleeing Iraq, he said he is aware that security, safety and freedom are “things that we can never take for granted”, and argued defence spending “needs to rise”.
He added that he wants to “focus on letting children be children, protecting them from damaging and inappropriate nonsense being forced on them by radical activists”.
The Chancellor said he envisaged a nation “where your only ceiling is yourself – not the state, or society”.
“We, as Conservatives, must trust Britons to do what is best for themselves,” he said.
“Overseeing the highest tax burden since 1949 is not the Conservative way. We cannot tax our way into prosperity.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps appeared to rebuke “plotting” against Boris Johnson within the Tory party in an apparent dig at rival Rishi Sunak as he set out his own leadership bid.
Seeking to present himself as a candidate with a track record of loyalty, Mr Shapps said he would not have started planning a campaign “behind (Boris Johnson’s) back”.
Launching his bid in The Sunday Times, the Transport Secretary told the paper: “I have not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the Prime Minister.
“I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back. I tell you this: for all his flaws – and who is not flawed – I like Boris Johnson.
“I have never, for a moment, doubted his love of this country.”
It was reported on Saturday that Boris Johnson intends to stand down as Prime Minister on Monday in order to run again for Tory leader.
But this suggestion was knocked down by a spokesperson for Mr Johnson as completely untrue.
Ms Badenoch announced her campaign in The Times, with a plan for a smaller state and a government “focused on the essentials”.
She is backed by Lee Rowley, the MP for North East Derbyshire, and Tom Hunt, the MP for Ipswich.
