BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, UK Parliament

Vicky Ford, member of the Women and Equalities Committee in Parliament, has said Jeremy Hunt "has made it clear he’s not going to change abortion law".

"He was the longest serving health secretary and he didn’t seek to change abortion law," during his time in office, she told the BBC.

She added that if the now foreign secretary did want to "bring about sweeping change in our abortion law", he would have done it when he was in charge of the NHS.

Matt Hancock is now taking questions and is asked about Michael Gove and the row around him admitting to taking cocaine in the past.

"I believe it's absolutely right for Michael to stay in this race…" he says. "We don't want to shuffle out from politics anyone who's had an indiscretion... we don't just want people who've had a perfect past.

"In terms of me, I'm making my case and I think I've got a good case, and I note that the front runner has never won the Conservative leadership race in history."

"My favourite time in government is when you remove a barrier, and people improve things in a way you thought impossible" Matt Hancock continues to tell the crowd at his launch.

He says the best way to improve things is to "listen to people on the ground" rather than "dictating things from on high".

He adds that he is "unapologetically pro-business".

"We've got to win the case for capitalism," he says, by providing high pay and low taxes.

"We haven't defined, post-Brexit, what we want Britain to be," he adds.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock says the UK has "we need to move forward, we need a fresh start".

He says it is not really about his "back story" as he saw his parents build a business but saw them "nearly lose it all during the early 90s recession".

"I'm an optimist about the future," he tells the assorted journalists.

He says he has a "simple belief" that "every single person has a contribution to make" and that it is "up to government" to unlock this potential.

"If you look deep inside everyone's heart...there's something of value".

There's also an unlikely celebrity in the audience...

Image source, European Photopress Agency

"Fundamentally, the issue hasn't changed" because the UK needs "somebody who is going to be ready to lead, deliver Brexit from day one", the former education secretary says.

Nicky Morgan insists Mr Gove is not a "hypocrite" because he has been "very candid about having made a mistake".

"We all believe, as Conservatives, in a second-chance society," she told the BBC.

Image source, Reuters

Conservative backbencher and leadership hopeful Sam Gyimah says he threw his "hat into the ring" because there is a "very narrow set of views that are being discussed".

He says all other candidates are offering Theresa May's deal or no deal. He says that "there are many millions of people who do not want to vote for Jeremy Corbyn" and do not want to see the Conservatives turn into a "hard Brexit party".

He's advocating another referendum as a way to "break the Brexit deadlock".

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Michael Gove certainly hasn’t had the start his team would have wanted for him in this campaign.

The revelations that he took cocaine several times in the past has meant he's been dogged by appalling headlines and faced an awkward encounter on Sunday in interviews.

As he prepares to formally launch his campaign, the answer to whether he can move on from the drugs row is, it depends.

Not just on what he says next, whether he’s got enough to say that will grab colleagues’ attention, but also in terms of the other candidates - what do they say? Do any of them come out with things that are eye-catching enough or provocative enough or troubling enough to be able to move this narrative on?

There are whispers in Westminster that actually this is now over for him and he should think of pulling out.

At this stage, given how long this has all been in the making, this is pretty unlikely, but things move fast these days.

At the weekend, Boris Johnson suggested he could refuse to pay the £39bn "divorce bill" to the EU until it changes the terms of the withdrawal deal offered to the UK.

The European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, reacted unhappily, tweeting that not paying up would "hurt the UK’s credibility as an international partner".

On the French website Le Figaro, external, there's reporting that a source in President Macron's entourage said "a failure to honour one’s payment obligations means failure to respect an international pledge, equivalent to defaulting on sovereign debt, which has well-known consequences."

Image source, Reuters

Andrea Leadsom is another of those running to be Tory leader.

She told the Today programme Theresa May's thrice-rejected withdrawal deal was "dead" and "there's no way that's going to go through."

"So, what I'm proposing is is a three-step plan to a managed exit," she continued.

When it was suggested she was really just advocating leaving with no deal, the former Commons leader said she wanted to "take the elements of the Withdrawal Agreement that parliamentarians would agree to and that the EU would like to see in place and to put it to Parliament and to the EU Commission that these elements are things that would work for all of us and can be delivered by Oct. 31".

Image source, EPA

As we said, Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd has given her backing to Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for the leadership.

Ms Rudd, an influential voice on the Remain-supporting wing of the party, told BBC Radio 4's Today he was "the best shot we have at breaking this impasse" on Brexit.

She said anybody who says the UK is leaving by 31 October "come hell or high water" and does not have the relationships to bridge the differences in Europe "is just taking us towards a general election".

Mr Hunt told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday he believed the legal time limit for abortion should be reduced from 24 to 12 weeks - although he said "it won't be government policy to change the law” if he gets into Downing Street.

On that, Ms Rudd said it was his “personal, private view”.

“That has always been his view,” she said. “I have spoken to Jeremy and there will no change to abortion law if and when he becomes prime minister.

“I feel very strongly about this. We need to make sure that as a government we always protect women’s rights to choose.”

Paul Johnson, from think tank the Institute For Fiscal Studies, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme higher rate taxpayers would receive a "quite significant tax cut" under Mr Johnson's plans - but the biggest beneficiaries would include wealthy pensioners, and people living solely off investments.

Lib Dem leader Vince Cable certainly isn't a fan of the offer.

Justice Secretary and former Chief Secretary to the Treasury David Gauke says he thinks it's the "wrong priority" - a sentiment echoed by fellow Tory MP Nicky Morgan.

Image source, European Photopress Agency

Conservative leadership hopeful Boris Johnson has announced that he would like to make tax cuts if he becomes prime minister.

The former foreign secretary told the Telegraph he would use money currently set aside for a no-deal Brexit to raise the 40% tax rate threshold to £80,000.

His promise came as Work and Pensions Secretary Amber Rudd said she believed Jeremy Hunt should be prime minister.

Image source, Press Association

Conservative leadership candidate Michael Gove has said he was lucky to have avoided jail after taking cocaine several while he was a journalist.

He told the BBC that his actions were a "crime and a mistake".

A Times article Mr Gove wrote in 1999 - around the time he admits having taken the drug - has been republished.

In it he criticised "middle class professionals" who took drugs - leading to headlines calling him a "hypocrite".

But speaking on Marr on Sunday morning, Mr Gove denied that amounted to hypocrisy.

Our political editor says the environment secretary is pushing ahead with his leadership bid despite the row.

Candidates today will be launching their leadership bids and trying to get MPs on their side for votes.

This morning we are expecting the launches of Health Secretary Matt Hancock, former Brexit secretary Dominic Raab and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Later on today we are expecting a leadership launch from Environment Secretary Michael Gove and former Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey.