Yahoo Finance Stephen Crabb Launches Tory Leadership Campaign
Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb has become the first Tory MP to officially announce he is running as a candidate for leader.
The MP confirmed he will enter the contest with Business Secretary Sajid Javid as his running mate following Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation on Friday.
Mr Crabb, who backed staying in the European Union during the referendum campaign, said the Leave vote has left society "divided".
"I really worry about how we're going to stitch this all back together," he said.
"When you're the governing party, disunity has wider implications."
At the launch event in central London, Mr Crabb said uniting the country is his main priority.
He said there could be no "stepping back" from the referendum result and ruled out a second ballot.
Instead, he set out three aims for the negotiations: "One: controlling immigration, and for us this is a red line.
"The one message that came through louder than any other in the vote last week is that the British people want to control immigration.
"Two: it is vital that we seek to achieve as close an economic relation with the EU as we have now.
"Three: the end of the supremacy of EU law."
Senior Conservatives have confirmed they will be backing Brexit campaign frontman Boris Johnson.
Meanwhile, a survey for the ConservativeHome website has put Home Secretary Theresa May - who is expected to enter the race before Thursday's noon deadline - narrowly ahead of Mr Johnson among party members.
:: Nominations Open In Tory Leadership Race
Mr Crabb said he was not concerned about being an underdog: "There are different ways you can become a household name, I'm doing it the right way hopefully."
He said the contest should not be a "two-horse race" between the "Boris/Stop Boris" candidates.
He said he was standing because he "loves" his country and party and has the values and strengths needed to get the UK through the "challenges ahead".
He explained how he had been brought up by a single mother on a council estate in Wales and went to a state school.
Sky's Senior Political Correspondent Beth Rigby said Mr Crabb is: "The archetypal anti-Bullingdon Club, anti-Etonian. The complete opposite to a David Cameron or Boris Johnson-type leader."
She said he will "scare Labour because he is the kind of Tory that could really Hoover up the working class vote".
Mr Crabb used the speech to have a dig at Mr Johnson by saying that on the Welsh rugby fields, if you want the ball you don't wait at the back for the ball to come out of the scrum but get your hands dirty and go and get it.
Speaking about becoming Tory leader in 2013 Mr Johnson said: "If the ball came loose from the back of a scrum, it would be a great thing to have a crack at."
