Andrea Leadsom's leadership pitch aimed at rightwing Tories

Andrea Leadsom has made a clear pitch to rightwing Conservative party members who will decide the new prime minister, saying she did not like David Cameron’s gay marriage legislation and would want to repeal the foxhunting ban.

The leading Brexit candidate, who is up against the frontrunner Theresa May, outlined a range of policy proposals on Thursday that appeared designed to appeal to the 150,000-odd Tories who will vote in the contest.

As a junior minister who has been in parliament just six years, Leadsom is the insurgent candidate against May.

Before the final round of voting by MPs, she gave a speech to activists promising “prosperity, not austerity”, ditching the economic strategy of her former boss George Osborne, before her supporters marched on parliament chanting “What do we want? Leadsom for leader. When do we want it? Now.”

She used a series of television interviews to explain her views on everything from religion to when to take the country to war, as members weigh up whether to go for the experienced hand of May or a fresh-faced newcomer.

On same-sex marriage, Leadsom said she supported partnerships between gay couples but had reservations about the legislation that led her to abstain during the parliamentary vote.

“I believe that the love of same-sex couples is every bit as valuable as that of opposite-sex couples,” she told ITV. “But nevertheless, my own view is that marriage in the biblical sense is very clearly, from the many, many Christians who wrote to me on this subject, in their opinion, can only be between a man and a woman. I don’t agree with them, to be specific.

“But what I do think is that I would have preferred civil partnership to be available to heterosexual and gay couples and for marriage to have remained as a Christian service for men and women who wanted to commit in the eyes of God.

“Civil partnerships are called marriage as well. The concern I had was the potential compulsion for the Church of England. I don’t think the Anglican church should be forced down a route when many Christians aren’t comfortable about it.”

She said there was “very clear hurt” caused by the legislation to many Christians and claimed the UK had “muddled the terms of marriage, civil partnership, registry office, church”.

“I didn’t really like the legislation, that was the problem, but I absolutely support gay marriage,” she said.

Leadsom was pressed about her religious beliefs, with Channel 4 News asking her whether she was spoken to directly by God.

“That question is not one that is for open laughing at and poking fun at,” she said. “I can absolutely feel that that’s what you would like to. So I absolutely am a Christian and I am very proud of it. It absolutely acts in the background in my desire to have a very honest campaign with high integrity and so on.

“But if you are asking me, am I going to be sort of saying, ‘Oh well God’s told me to do this and do that,’ well of course that’s not the case.”

Leadsom said she would commit to holding a vote to repeal the hunting ban as it was “absolutely not proven to be in the interest of animal welfare whatsoever”.

She said there was a “need to exterminate vermin, which foxes are” and called for a “proper licensed regime”.

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Earlier, Leadsom continued to face pressure over claims about her 25-year finance career, which she had attempted to silence by publishing her CV this week.

After critics raised fresh questions about inconsistencies on Wednesday, Leadsom told the BBC that she had never claimed to be a fund manager, although she had worked for fund management companies, and she stood by her assertion that she had managed large teams of about 40 to 50 people at Barclays.

Some of her supporters have claimed she managed billions in funds, and in the House of Commons in 2010 she said: “I have been in investment banking and funds management for 23 years.” But her allies say she was always clear she worked in the fund management industry rather than specifically as a fund manager.

Leadsom said she stood by her CV and did not regret anything about how she had presented her experience before parliament.

“My CV as I’ve presented it is exactly accurate,” she said. “There is nothing to regret, my CV is exactly accurate.”

She has also faced scrutiny over her tax affairs, promising to publish details of her return only if she made the shortlist, and saying it was quite “boring”.

Separately, it was reported that she had helped set up a school exchange project with a Christian charity in Uganda that was co-run by a religious group linked to “gay cure” ministries.

Leadsom’s supporters argue she has been unfairly targeted by people wanting to bring down her campaign. Tim Loughton, a Tory MP and her campaign chief, said: “A lot of people have been trying to turn Andrea over. If, frankly, the best thing they can do is her job title back in 199-whatever, it really shows they are pretty desperate.”

He stressed that Leadsom would not be taking any money or help from Arron Banks, the Ukip donor and founder of the Leave.EU group, after speculation that he may support her campaign.

Leadsom’s appeal to the right of the party was already worrying her rivals. Allies of Michael Gove had conceded she was likely to be the second candidate alongside May and that she may well appeal to the grassroots of the Conservatives in the same way as Jeremy Corbyn has captured the imagination of Labour members.

Gove’s campaign chief, Nick Boles, had to apologise on Wednesday after pleading with fellow MPs to stop the “frightening” prospect of Leadsom becoming prime minister.

In her speech on Thursday, Leadsom sought to stress that she wanted to govern for everybody, not just elites, and would be a prime minister of tolerance and hope who would help Britain be the greatest country in the world.

“I’m an optimist. I truly believe we can be the greatest nation on Earth. As we show the UK is once again open to the world and united in our new destiny, so we will expand our horizons,” she said.

The audience cheered as she said: “Prosperity should be our goal, not austerity. I want to spread prosperity to every corner of our country. I want to help create more jobs, because we need to hear and heed millions of our fellow citizens who feel and fear our country’s leaders are not worrying about them enough.”

Echoing messages of Boris Johnson and the Vote Leave campaign, she said she wanted to listen to those who did not like bosses of big businesses getting “telephone number salaries” and instead create “higher pay for the many”.

“I am with you and I want you to share in the great future for this country,” she said. “I want to lead a nation where anyone who aims high can achieve their dreams. My first task is to show how great our nation is.”

To applause from Conservative activist supporters, Leadsom said she wanted to “banish the pessimists”.

Addressing concerns about the economic consequences of Brexit, she said the lower pound would be good for exports and claimed the stock market had already recovered. Leadsom also sought to reassure the financial markets that Britain could cope with leaving the EU.

The FTSE 100 index has recovered losses following the Brexit vote but the FTSE 250, which includes smaller firms, is nearly 10% down from the day of the vote.

“No one needs to fear our decision to leave the EU,” Leadsom said. “Trade must be the top priority, continued tariff-free trade with the EU, continued free trade with those countries we have agreements with as a current member of the EU, and vitally seeing the opportunities to take up free trade agreements with fast-growing economies around the world.”

She said the UK was “open for business and a great place to employ people”, and she believed Britain had “a great future ahead of us”.

May’s response appears to be to try to outflank Leadsom to the right on the issue of immigration. Leadsom promised on Thursday to allow all EU citizens currently in the country to stay, but May’s campaign suggested this would allow foreign criminals to stay.

A spokesman for May said: “Andrea Leadsom’s commitment to give permanent residence to foreign criminals is concerning – and is exactly the kind of misjudgment that her inexperience can cause. That’s why we need strong, proven leadership – something only Theresa can offer.”