Tory leadership contest: Party grandees will decide if May becomes next UK prime minister

Conservative grandees, including the party's board and the chair of the 1922 Committee Graham Brady, will meet to discuss whether Theresa May becomes the next Tory leader and prime minister of the UK. Brady and the other officials will meet today (11 July) after the home secretary's only rival, Andrea Leadsom, dropped out of the leadership contest.

The move comes after May used her national leadership bid launch on 11 July in Birmingham to call for executive pay reform and further rules and regulations around tax evasion and avoidance.

"It doesn't matter to me whether you're Amazon, Google or Starbucks, you have a responsibility to pay your taxes," she declared. "As prime minister, I will crack down on individual and corporate tax avoidance and tax evasion."

The senior Conservative, who is appeared in front of a "country that works for everyone, not just the privileged few" banner, also vowed to put workers on company boards and make shareholder votes on remuneration binding, in a policy move similar to that of promises made by Ed Miliband ahead of the 2015 general election.

Ahead of the EU referendum, the former Remain campaigner also reassured her Eurosceptic supporters by saying:

"Brexit means Brexit and we are going to make success of it." The 59-year-old had faced Andrea Leadsom, the Leave backing former city minister to the right of the party.

Leadsom apologised to May after she reportedly suggested being a mother would make her a better prime minister because she had a "very real stake in the future", in a Times interview.

The 52-year-old later told The Daily Telegraph: "I was pressed to say how my children had formed my views. I didn't want it to be used as an issue. Having children has no bearing on the ability to be PM. I deeply regret that anyone has got the impression that I think otherwise."

In another dramatic turn of events, Leadsom dropped out of the contest in the "national interest" and gave May her full support.

"May has the support of more than 60% of our parliamentary colleagues, and will be able to provide the strong and unifying government that we urgently need," she said in a 11 July statement.

The comments come after Justice Secretary Michael Gove launched a surprise leadership bid after he was expected to back fellow Vote Leave campaigner Boris Johnson. The former Mayor of London subsequently ruled himself out of the contest, but Gove failed to get enough support from the Conservative parliamentary party to get onto the head-to-head ballot.