Education Secretary Nicky Morgan ready to run for Tory leader after David Cameron

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Nicky Morgan has thrown her hat into the ring to succeed David Cameron
Education Secretary said she would join leadership contest for Tory leader
The 42-year-old said it was time for a woman to lead a major party again
She said her final decision would be made ‘very much with family in mind’

By Jason Groves, Deputy Political Editor for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:05 EST, 30 September 2015 | Updated: 06:34 EST, 1 October 2015

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Nicky Morgan (pictured) has thrown her hat into the ring to succeed David Cameron as Tory leader

Nicky Morgan has thrown her hat into the ring to succeed David Cameron as Tory leader.

The Education Secretary said she would join the leadership contest when Mr Cameron steps down within the next few years, provided her family backs the decision.

It came amid reports the Prime Minister will announce he is quitting in 2019, a year earlier than expected.

Mrs Morgan told the Spectator magazine that, 25 years after Margaret Thatcher left office, it was time for a woman to lead a major party again.

‘I hope that, in the not too distant future, there will be another female leader of a main Westminster political party,’ she said.

Asked whether she would put her own name forward, she said: ‘A lot of it will depend on family. I’d be saying this if I was male or female - in the sense that being leader of the party is so all-consuming, putting such a pressure on family relationships.’

Mrs Morgan, who has a seven-year-old son, said her final decision would be made ‘very much with family in mind’.

The Spectator also reported that Mr Cameron has told friends allies he “intends to announce he’s leaving” in spring 2019 with a contest taking place that summer, before the general election in May 2020.

But Downing Street insisted it was pure speculation.

A spokesman for the Prime Minister said: 'As the Prime Minister said before the election, he will serve a full term. A full term means five years.'

Mrs Morgan, a 42-year-old corporate lawyer, has enjoyed a meteoric rise through the ranks since entering parliament as MP for Loughborough in 2010.

She served as a minister at the Treasury before being promoted to replace Michael Gove as Education Secretary last year. She is also Minister for Women and Equalities.

Asked what her leadership pitch would be, she said: ‘I represent a part of the country that I think is incredibly down-to-earth.

‘It wants good schools, good hospitals, solid economy, support for those who have started businesses and wants to know that the government is on their side.’

Mrs Morgan angered gay rights activists by voting against same-sex marriage in 2013. But she has changed her mind since, and now says she would vote in favour.

She has carved out a reputation as a moderniser after urging the Tories to drop the ‘hate’ and campaign on more positive messages.

In a speech last year she said: ‘If we talk about what we hate all the time, we’re not talking about we like and what we want to do to help people who want to do well. We never say actually we are on the side of these people, we want this to happen and we think this is great.’

Mrs Morgan also urged Mr Cameron not to give up on his ‘Big Society’ mission, saying she believed in ‘people taking responsibility for their own lives’.

Mr Cameron has pledged he will not stand for a third term as Prime Minister. Boris Johnson, one of the candidates to succeed him, has suggested Mr Cameron will quit in late 2018.

Chancellor George Osborne now leads the field of candidates to take over. Other potential Tory leaders include the Home Secretary Theresa May and the business secretary Sajid Javid.

The Education Secretary said she would join the leadership contest when David Cameron (pictured together above during a visit to a school in London) steps down within the next few years, provided her family backs her

Meanwhile, the Conservatives, whose annual conference begins on Sunday, last night revealed they are to launch their own trade union movement in a bid to appeal to moderates unhappy with the militant stance of many union barons.

Deputy party chairman Rob Halfon said the Conservative Workers and Trade Union Movement would provide a voice for Conservative-minded and moderate trade unionists.

‘I think that trade unionism should be for the many, not the few. And at the moment, so much of it, you see it through the prisms of a few militant leaders, who I believe don’t represent the thousands of ordinary trade union members,’ he told Parliament’s The House magazine.

‘There will be a voice for moderate trade unionists who feel they may have sympathy with the Conservatives or even just feel that they’re not being represented by militant trade union leaders.’