Andrea Leadsom - please stand for leadership!

[Millyonthefloss2]

Anyone agree?

hotcurrypowder - which words exactly were despicable?

AL: Yes. I am sure Theresa will be really sad she doesn't have children so I don't want this to be "Andrea has children, Thersea hasn't" because I think that would be really horrible but I genuinely feel that being a mum means you have a very real stake in the future of our country, a tangible stake.

Was it having children gives you a tangible stake in the future?

or was it
"I don't want this to be "Andrea has children, Thersea hasn't" because I think that would be really horrible"

becasue one thing is for sure, it is now exactly what she said she doesn't want i.e. that she has children but Theresa doesn't.
She explicitly said she doesn't want that, but that's exactly what the headlines are all saying today.

I don't see anything despicable - I see her words have been twisted.

As the saying goes - "If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools..."

Andrea Leadsome is a conservative Christian who voted against same-sex marriage, thinks marriage should only be for Christian couples who want to take a vow before God (what about the rest of us heterosexual couples who took vows in a registry office?) and who clearly stated that she has an edge over Theresa May because she has children.

Seriously people?

My mum has children, but she's not fit to run a petting zoo, let alone the country.

I am no Theresa May fan, she is far too right wing for me and when, in a former life, I interviewed her, she was, frankly, dead behind the eyes. But she is a million miles better than Andrea bonkers Leadsome with her God fearing ways.

Regardless of what anyone thinks of AL she can't do the job because the media have it in for her and will overthrow her. So we are seemingly stuck with the chance TM who clearly was playing a game during the campaign as she saw an opening for herself if the vote was leave. However, the media seem to love her and they are the ones with true power in this country. Let's hope she does a good job.

Any sightings of her tax return in the papers today?

Are there any Conservative party members on here who have a view about AL's appeal to the membership?

On Twitter this morning, all the accounts supporting her seem to fall into one of three categories

• UKIP supporters
• Corbyn fans
• Americans

She will be very popular with the Brexiting older Tory party members. 125,000 original members get the chance to vote. A lot of those will be not that well educatd but like to turn up at the golf club and conservative club and moan about immigrants. There is sadly a very good chance they will vote for AL (I prefer May) and I had been hoping that instead as under the Tory rules the MPs would have chosen May and not put it to the membership but we are where we are.....

AL has specifically said this is not about who has children or not. No politician should ever make their tax returns public as a matter of principle (nor should they call referenda).

it is all mess but we shall have to make the best of it. Let us just hope the Tory members will do the right thing and choose May. However if they vote May we may well stay in the EEA which is Brexit but with free movement, financial contribution to the EU and free movement of people just like Norway so they may well choose the AL option of immediate service of notice and departuer in two years' time.

She said she would if she stays in the final two.

She didn't have to, she could have said it's none of our business.

She will be very popular with the Brexiting older Tory party members.

Do you think so? I tend to think of these people as conservative with a small as well as a capital C.

I did find one Tory party member on Twitter who supports her (I'm excluding the MPs who did) but virtually all of the people with the blue "Leadsom4Leader" banner on their profiles appear to be UKIP supporters. I would guess this is the Arron Banks funded unofficial campaign.

I note that May has cleverly released a commitment to campaign "cleanly" with an empty space for a Leadsom signature , the irony ...

she ABSTAINED from the 'gay marriage' vote - just stating the facts here and to correct the misconception that is rife on here.

Here are the most pertinent quotes:

“Genuinely I feel that being a mum means you have a real stake in the future of our country, a tangible stake.”

[May] “possibly has nieces, nephews, lots of people. But I have children who are going to have children who will directly be part of what happens next”.

Anyone who can't see that as her saying it gives her an edge would seem to be willfully narrow in their reading of Leadsom's words.

Still, she'll make enough noise in the hope that Tory Party members will close their eyes and their minds and assume it's a smear from the left-wing Times. Which is how I see her campaign going, dog-whistling and faux-innocence, and then claiming victim status. Her next go using this tactic will be more subtle.

she ABSTAINED from the 'gay marriage' vote - just stating the facts here and to correct the misconception that is rife on here.

That's not correct. It's been reported in the press that she "abstained" but what actually happened is she went through both the AYE and NO lobbies in something called a "positive abstention". She said it was to give her view that gay marriage is wrong but she is not against gay people being in a loving relationship.

I really am of the opinion that the Gay marriage vote has sailed already, I disagree with her over that. I hardly think though that with everything going on it's something that parliament are going to revisit, bit like foxhunting really.

The decision needs to be based on who is best placed to deal with the UK's situation in Europe. Not who has kids, has published their tax return, disagreed with a 5yo vote etc etc.

58% of Tory party members )50% of whome are over 60 by the way) voted Brexit according to today's FT. They may well vote for AL.

Women in their 50s tend to be very sensible, with life and business experience and make very good leaders. If we get May or AL I will be pleased. We have had far far far too many years since we had a female leader. I hope Labour can do better in moving towards female leadership too. It is long over due.

Now why anyone who could make money elsewhere would ever choose the public scrutiny of politics is beyond me but just as well some poor suckers are prepared to do it. It cannot be much fun.

Here's another way of looking at it... Having children of her own, there is every chance Andrea Leadsom is extremely invested in her own children, far more than she has the remotest interest in anyone else's, and would always want to ensure that children like hers don't suffer. There is no reason, on the other hand, why Theresa May should be incapable of doing what she thinks is best for the future of the country - being childless does not make you a twisted bitch who wants to hurt future generations. It used to be thought that nurses should not have families of their own, because they would distract them from caring for others... There - another nasty perspective for everyone to consider. AL should never have brought the subject up, it's just asking for the debate to turn nasty and sexist. She's a very silly woman.

I first heard about her now infamous interview with the Times journalist on Radio 4 this morning. I am very disappointed by Leadson on this. In the audio she clearly prefaces that it would be constrewed as hurtful to Theresa May, as she doesn't have children, but she then goes onto saying that she has a more valid reason for having a state in this country because she has children and they will have children. Which ever way you look at this it was a bad interview on her part. If your up for the biggest job in this country then there are going to be some very tough interviews to come. She showed at best no political judgment and at worst a nasty small minded vote grabber, who will stop at nothing to try and appeal to middle England.

She really cannot complain about the Times article. It was she who chose to bring in the fact that May doesn't have children - and it wasn't a one-off acknowledgment, she went on to emphasise the point by saying that the fact that May might have nieces and nephews in effect isn't enough.

I also think the "positive abstention" thing for gay marriage is dishonest. She believes that gay people should be permitted loving relationships (wow, how liberal of her) but not that they should be able to commit to each other in the way heterosexuals can. If she were honest, she would simply have gone through the No lobby and left it there, as that represented her beliefs.

I notice that she seems to have taken down the pictures on her FB page where Farage endorsed her, and where she equates a picture of May with a Muslim lady as meaning that May endorses Sharia. Yet more dishonesty.

She's so so invested in her own children's interest that she gifted her son her share of her property business just before she entered politics. I think she's delusional and dodgy. Say what you like about May but she appears to just turn up and do the job in hand. Her tax history and CV fabrication is enough already to exclude her chances. I interview candidates all the time and ifs there's anything a company or brand hates more, it is lies. That's because you cannot trust them. She lacks experience, judgement and humility.

She lacks experience, judgement and humility.

Lack of experience, judgement and in-depth knowledge should make her the ideal candidate for Leave ("we've had enough of experts").

I wonder why Brexit supporters cannot see that she would be God's gift to EU leaders in any leave negotiations? She's so lacking in judgment that they would walk all over her.

or was it
"I don't want this to be "Andrea has children, Thersea hasn't" because I think that would be really horrible"

Vri123 it wasn't that though.

it was
"I don't want this to be "Andrea has children, Thersea hasn't" because I think that would be really horrible" but

The but is important.

Driven by God to hunt foxes.

If we didn't need any more truth that the Brexit voters are happy to be hood winked. Boris I'm a europhile but I'd like to PM more. Gove I'm not fit to be PM and I don't want to be, hang about I do want to be PM. Leadson I'd like to be PM but what about my lack of experience in government, my personal financial record, my stance on single parents, my stance on gay marriage and my stance on blood sports, my stance on Mark Carney and the full out of Brexit and now my stance on a fellow political colleague. All this doesn't matter because the gulable Brexiters will defend us to the hilt because we climbed on a big red equally lying bus.