Grant Shapps has thrown his hat into the ring for the Tory leadership contest, vowing to shrink the state and end "tactical government by an often distracted centre."
The Transport Secretary, who has held various frontbench roles since joining the then-shadow cabinet in 2007, was a key part of Boris Johnson's 2018 leadership campaign.
Mr Shapps first became a household name - or names - after he was found to have used the alias Michael Green to sell get-rich-quick schemes on the internet.
One 2004 letter obtained by the Sunday Mirror tried to flog an online toolkit called "How To Become Stinking RICH Online" – which he claimed would make investors $100,000.
It featured dad-of-three Shapps grinning in his luxury sports car alongside the boast: “That’s me… sitting in my brand-spanking-new Crossfire Convertible 3.2L."
He repeatedly denied he had a second job after being elected to Parliament in 2005.
But in 2015 he was forced to admit he had "screwed up" by "over-firmly denying" using the alias after he was elected.
Confirming his candidacy, he took a swipe at his rivals, saying: “I have not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister. I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back. I tell you this: for all his flaws – and who is not flawed? – I like Boris Johnson. I have never, for a moment, doubted his love of this country.”
He added: “It is easy to criticise Boris after keeping one’s head down for years while being happy to benefit from his patronage. I am glad that I did not do that.
“Even as the skies darkened over his premiership, often because of errors committed by him, I hoped he could pull it back. Because in losing him, we would lose a man who makes a unique connection with people.”
But he said: “I do think we have lost sight of what we should be about as a Conservative government. We should trust people and allow them to spend their money as they wish.
"We must map a clear path to lower taxes, not just expressing good intentions. Covid witnessed a necessary and extraordinary expansion of state spending and a quite unprecedented level of state interference in people’s private lives.
"As Conservatives, we should tolerate the unnecessary continuation of neither.”
