UK transport minister Grant Shapps to run to replace outgoing PM Johnson: Report

British transport minister Grant Shapps will run in the contest to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson, he told the Sunday Times newspaper, joining what is expected to be an increasingly crowded field.

Shapps has ruled out holding a national election if successful, but would produce an emergency budget within his first 100 days to cut taxes for the most vulnerable and give state support to firms with high levels of energy consumption, the paper reported in an article published online on Saturday.

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“We have had two-and-a-half years of tactical government by an often distracted centre. This must end. We must be a strategic government, sober in its analysis, and not chasing the next headline,” it quoted Shapps as saying.

The newspaper said Shapps’ goal was to address the cost of living crisis and rebuild the British economy so it is the biggest in Europe by 2050.

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