we had alan duncan earlier thing that is too many, had easier playing out over the next few weeks?ically reduce that number of candidates. there is a threshold of 16 that people have got to get in terms of votes to be able to stay within the game and i think there will be a number of people who will follow that first hurdle and that will thin the field. it is no bad thing to have ideas and have people fizzing with ideas at the stage. the country deserve that. it is good to hear different approaches to how we need the eu as well. maria miller, backing dominic raab, thank you so much. there was one candidate this evening who pulled out of the race because he did not have enough support. he is just here, we will try and grab sam gyimah to get him to explain. he needed the backing of eight mps and we don't think he was going to get that. here he is now, thank you for joining us. what went wrong? nothing went wrong. i entered the race over a week ago and it became apparent but i did not have enough time to build support, given that a lot of candidates had been planning for a long time.

let's speak sir alan duncan who is backing jeremy hunt. why do you think it should bejeremy hunt?le are saying it would be better to have two passionate brexiteers. it might not be the best formula for a successful contest. but i think germany is very capable, very logical, good international relationships. —— jeremy. i have worked throughout theirtenure in jeremy. i have worked throughout their tenure in office with those two foreign secretaries. and i am very clear in my mind that the better of the two is jeremy very clear in my mind that the better of the two isjeremy hunt, so i very much hope he gets through to be the second so that we can have over the next three or four weeks a good contest between borisjohnson andjeremy good contest between borisjohnson and jeremy hunt. boris johnson has managed to get support from both wings of the party, and there are lots of people on the remain side of the argument who say he is a unifying figure for the party. you do not see him is that? there are all sorts of reasons in any leadership contest for people of seemingly different points o