Stewart at Speaker’s Corner

The Penrith and the Border MP was a Labour voter aged 18, but switched to the Conservative Party after working in Afghanistan, the International Development Secretary said.

There was a “surreal gap between rhetoric and reality,” he told a crowd of around 100 people at Speakers’ Corner in London yesterday.

Rory Stewart also said rival Conservative leadership contenders who are pledging to ditch the Irish backstop are wasting their time.

The International Development Secretary also said rival Conservative leadership contenders pledging to ditch the Irish backstop are wasting their time.

The backstop prevents a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic in the event of no-deal Brexit.

"Every politician that has spent the last two and a half years saying they can remove the backstop has failed," Mr Stewart said.

"Europe has no intention of removing the backstop.

"It is a recipe for delay, it is a recipe for uncertainty, and we will still end up in this zombie, purgatory position in the middle of next year if people keep talking this way.

"For heavens sake, please reject the siren song of people saying they would remove the backstop."

The backstop element of Theresa May's Brexit deal has been controversial on the Conservative back benches.

Some MPs claim the UK could be caught indefinitely within a backstop arrangement with the EU if no deal was agreed.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who is also running for the leadership, has proposed a so-called "time-limited backstop" that would prevent a backstop arrangement indefinitely.

Mr Stewart said the EU would not remove the backstop it negotiated with Mrs May, and other Conservative leadership candidates were wasting time by promising to do so.

Speaking on Monday evening, Mr Stewart elaborated on his proposal to hold a "citizen's assembly" on Brexit to find a compromise between revoking Article 50 and no-deal positions in the Brexit debate.

If elected PM he would "drive through" the results of the assembly in Parliament and challenge opposition party leaders to do the same, he said.

The assembly would take place without altering the current timeline for the UK leaving the EU in October, and would require no further negotiations in Brussels, he added.

The event at Speakers' Corner was the latest in a series of public speaking events in Mr Stewart's leadership campaign, dubbed "#RoryWalks".

He has met voters in different areas of the country, challenged them to debate him, and posted videos of the encounters on social media.

Although his campaign has been successful in terms of online reach, the former tutor to princes William and Harry and MP for Penrith and The Border has just four public supporters in the House of Commons.

Victoria Prentis, David Gauke, Ken Clarke and Nicholas Soames have pledged to vote for him.

Question topics from members of the public at Speakers' Corner on Monday ranged from Mr Stewart's opinion of his education at Eton College to the future of the international development budget.

Mr Stewart said he would commit to maintaining the DFID spend on foreign aid at 0.7% of GDP, and double the proportion of the money that goes on climate change.

On his schooling, Mr Stewart said there were "bigger issues in life we have to deal with" than his privileged upbringing.

Asked if he supported Donald Trump's state visit to the UK, he said diplomacy required states to maintain relations and that critics should separate the office of the president from the man himself.

Boris Johnson, meanwhile, officially launched his bid to be leader with a video posted on Twitter.

During the video, Mr Johnson, said: “If there is one lesson from that referendum of 2016, it is that too many people feel left behind, that they’re not able to take part fully in the opportunities and success of our country.”