no, i m confident that he will determine that i was appointed on merit. that s obviously for him to conduct that investigation and process. it was a highly rigorous process, i can tell you being part of it. a very tough interview, a very tough process to be part of and so i m comfortable. there was an independent committee of people doing the interview and they were asking very searching and challenging questions of me and the other candidates and i m sure that process was fully and carefully recorded so it can be minuted and seen whether my appointment was done on merit, and i m confident it will be seen that that was the case. let s talk to our arts and media correspondent david sillito. break down the key issues here for us, david. , ., , us, david. the first one is the conversation us, david. the first one is the conversation between - us, david. the first one is the j conversation between richard us, david. the first one is the - conversation between richard sharpe and sam blyth
sam blythe, this distant cousin, the millionaire friend of borisjohnson, an old friend of richard sharp says, he wants to help borisjohnson out. richard kay says, i can introduce you to the cabinet secretary but after that i cannot be involved because i am in this appointments procedure. what he says is he spoke to simon case and said, i need your advice because i am involved in this appointments procedure. he says simon case and the cabinet secretary were aware of this and they agreed that there could be a potential conflict so he should have nothing further to do with the matter. he says that clears it up, he had no idea what happened, whether a loan was facilitated and he says the cabinet office have a note of that meeting. crucially what people are asking and indeed the labour party wants an inquiry into this, is they are saying that is all very well but
in downing street on friday. however, that is not. up to this is my words now, he has had to point out he cannot allow his nomination to go forward and he commits his support to whoever succeeds. that s the breaking news. borisjohnson out. penny mourdant and rishi sunak still very much in the battle for the leadership of the party for the leadership of the government, for running the country. rishi sunak is there, but penny mourdant has until two o clock tomorrow afternoon to reach that figure of 102 plus nominations and to stay in the fight. we ll keep across this on bbc news throughout the hours ahead in what has been another historic hour, in fact, in british politics. thanks for watching.
twitter. as you said, the race to replace borisjohnson has already begun. there is fury amongst some mps although as chris mason said on the radio this morning that momentum of it getting borisjohnson out earlier than september is a sort of dissipating a little bit. to bring it up with the latest here as ione wells. behind the doors of number ten this morning, things are very different from yesterday. on wednesday night, the message was that the prime minister was going to fight on. by 9am on thursday, he was going to step down as conservative party leader. tory mps have spent weeks frustrated at number ten changing their line, whether that be over downing street parties or what the prime minister knew about sexual misconduct allegations against his former deputy chief whip, chris pincher. but this time, the change of line was welcomed by many of them.
yesterday we had a number of cabinet ministers say to the prime minister, time s up. now, he was planning on sticking it out. the message from no 10 was there isn t going to be a turn out in the street, this prime minister has a mandate from the public that he is determined to get on with it. but today the fact that a bunch of cabinet ministers had told the prime minister to go a priti patel and others, add in what happened today, nadhim zahawi, the chancellor for just over a happened today, nadhim zahawi, the chancellor forjust over a day, saying the prime minister had to go, the new education secretary forjust over a day, saying the prime minister had to go. that has forced borisjohnson minister had to go. that has forced boris johnson out. minister had to go. that has forced borisjohnson out. he was doing everything he could last night to stay. the message we were getting was borisjohnson had a reshuffle on the cards and he was figuring out ways to get his team operational again. bu