MICHAEL GOVE has blown the race for the Tory leadership wide open by announcing he will stand.

The Scot has delivered a potentially fatal blow to Boris Johnson's bid to grab the Conservative crown by splitting the Brexit camp. It will also have boosted Theresa May's bid, who will now present herself as the unity candidate.

Chancellor George Osborne, who is close to Mr Gove, could deliver the Cameron faction, which is disaffected from Mr Johnson.

In a shock statement, the Justice Secretary said he did not believe the former London mayor could "provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead".

His leadership bid comes just a day after his wife urged her husband to play hardball with his fellow Brexiter Mr Johnson before making any promises of support in an email she inadvertently sent to a member of the public. It revealed behind the scenes concerns about the Uxbridge MP’s leadership bid.

Sarah Vine, a Daily Mail columnist, said the Justice Secretary must secure a specific guarantee about his future before making any deal. “Without that,” she warned, “you have no leverage…Do not concede any ground. Be your stubborn best. Good luck."

In a statement, that shook Westminster, Mr Gove explained: "I have repeatedly said that I do not want to be prime minister. That has always been my view. But events since last Thursday have weighed heavily with me.

"I respect and admire all the candidates running for the leadership. In particular, I wanted to help build a team behind Boris Johnson so that a politician who argued for leaving the European Union could lead us to a better future.

"But I have come, reluctantly, to the conclusion that Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead.

"I have therefore decided to put my name forward for the leadership. I want there to be an open and positive debate about the path the country will now take. Whatever the verdict of that debate I will respect it. In the next few days I will lay out my plan for the United Kingdom which I hope can provide unity and change."

The declaration is a devastating blow for Mr Johnson, who was expected to stand with the backing of the Justice Secretary, who worked alongside his Tory colleague to secure the shock Brexit victory and were believed to have grown close.

Mr Johnson is set to launch his leadership bid with a speech this morning , presenting what was described as a "positive, optimistic vision" of Britain outside the EU, offering "a chance to believe in ourselves".

Home Secretary Theresa May launched her bid in Whitehall, promising to reunite both the Conservative Party and the country.

A YouGov poll for The Times of 1,000 Conservative Party members put Mrs May ahead on 36 per cent with Mr Johnson on 27 per cent.

Former defence secretary Liam Fox and the self-styled "underdog", Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb, are also putting themselves forward. Andrea Leadsom has announced she is also vying for the party's top job, tweeting: "Let's make the most of the Brexit opportunities!"

The several candidates means the contest will run for a number of weeks as candidates get whittled down in votes on Tuesdays and Thursdays before the final two are put to the 150,000 or so Conservative Party members.

The timetable for the contest - which will end with a new prime minister being named on September 9 - was formally approved by the backbench 1922 Committee.

Meantime, Mrs May in her launch promised that she would offer "leadership that can unite our party and our country".

The Home Secretary is hot favourite to make it onto the ballot paper alongside Brexit standard-bearer Boris Johnson in the final run-off vote in which Conservative members will choose their new leader and the new occupant of 10 Downing Street.

Mrs May - who will fight on her record as a hard-headed and serious long-serving holder of one of the Cabinet's most difficult posts - hit out at her probable main rival with a newspaper article in which she warned that politics is "not a game".

Setting out her proposed programme in a speech in London, the Tory frontbencher - who was a low-key supporter of Remain during the referendum - made clear she would not attempt to back away from last week's vote to leave the EU, saying "Brexit means Brexit".

But she said she would not kick-off the two-year process of negotiating withdrawal until the UK's negotiating strategy is agreed - probably not before the end of this year. She said that she would create a new Government department, headed by a Cabinet-level minister who had campaigned for Leave, to oversee the UK's departure from the EU.

The Secretary of State said she would not order an emergency budget in response to the Brexit vote and would not call a snap election ahead of the scheduled date of 2020.

"Following last week's referendum, our country needs strong leadership to steer us through this period of economic and political uncertainty and to negotiate the best possible terms as we leave the EU.

"We need leadership that can unite our party and our country."

With Labour "tearing itself apart" and Scottish Nationalists mooting a second independence referendum, Mrs May said it was "nothing less than the patriotic duty of our party to unite and to govern in the best interests of the whole country.

"We need a bold new positive vision for the future of our country - a country that works not for a privileged few but for every one of us."

In a clear swipe at Mr Johnson, Mrs May said politics was not a "game".

She went on: "If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise.

"You have a job but you don't always have job security, you have your own home but you worry about mortgage rates going up, you can just about manage but you worry about the cost of living and the quality of the local school because there is no other choice for you.

"Frankly, not everybody in Westminster understands what it's like to live like this and some need to be told that it isn't a game. It's a serious business that has real consequences for people's lives."

Mrs May added: "As we conduct our negotiations it must be a priority to allow British companies to trade with the single market in goods and services but also, to regain more control of the numbers of people who are coming here from Europe.

"Any attempt to wriggle out of that, especially from leadership candidates who campaigned to leave the EU by focusing on immigration, will be unacceptable to the public."