Tory leadership candidate Rory Stewart has refused to say whether he would back Remain or Leave in a second referendum.

The international development secretary admitted on Monday he was deliberately “avoiding” the question.

Stewart campaigned for Remain in 2016. But he has since been one of the most outspoken supporters of Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

“The reason I’m avoiding the question is that my entire political project is about getting a moderate, pragmatic sensible Brexit deal through, my entire political project is about compromise,” he said today. 

Stewart told political reporters in Westminster: “If there were a second referendum I will have completely failed.”

The second round of voting in the contest takes place on Tuesday. Candidates have to win the backing of 33 MPs to proceed to the next stage.

Stewart said if MPs “do what they say” and vote for him having told him privately they would then he should reach the threshold.

The former British diplomat also denied he ever worked for MI6.

Jeremy Hunt, Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Michael Gove also agreed to take part in the Q&A sessions.

But Boris Johnson, the frontrunner in the race, refused to take part. He also dodged the Channel 4 leadership debate held on Sunday evening.

In a jibe directed at Johnson before today’s interviews with reporters, Hunt said his rival should “summon up some Churchillian courage” and attend.

 

Javid, who surprised many by deciding to back EU membership at the 2016 referendum, said today he would vote to leave in any second vote.

He told the hustings: “We cannot as a country have this debate about in or out of the EU again and again and again.

“Look at the uncertainty it’s caused, look at the challenge it’s caused, we’ve just got to put an end to this debate.”

The home secretary also urged Tory MPs to back him to fight Johnson in the final two, saying a Stewart v Johnson contest would mean party members essentially choosing who would be the 20th prime minister from elite school Eton.

Javid admitted he was not as good a communicator as the pair, but insisted his humble upbringing where he “didn’t go to top elite schools” or “debating societies at Oxford” meant he would provide a better choice for members.

In a sign of Stewart’s apparently surging popularity, Javid turned his fire on the former military officer: “Rory has done well and so far he is doing well and he is making an instinctive case.

“But I think the issue is he has spent too much time trying to appeal to Labour voters, not to the Conservative party membership.

“And I don’t think the country wants to have a competition between Rory and Boris, that is going to be ‘which one of us is going to be the 20th prime minister from one of our elite schools’.

“I think they want a fair and robust competition between two very different candidates.”

But Stewart insisted he was the only candidate who could “unsettle” Johnson.

“There is literally only question you have to answer – who is likely to be beat Boris?

“Look at that debate last night, who is going to be nimble enough, who has the style, who has the approach, the way of dealing with the public to unsettle this person?

“And I don’t think the answer is going to be pre-scripted answers (and) Commons parliamentary debating techniques.”