From left, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride, Priti Patel and Tom Tugendhat (Picture: Getty)
Hold onto your hats – the race to find a new leader for the Conservatives is reaching its climax as nominations will close later today.
But don’t hold onto them too tight. It’s going to be more than three months – yes, a quarter of a year – before Rishi Sunak’s successor is finally announced on November 2.
Six people have put their name forward: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel.
Suella Braverman said she had the support of 10 MPs but decided yesterday not to stand because she was branded ‘mad, bad and dangerous’.
For many there has already been bitter infighting – as members choose the future direction of the party.
This time, the leadership candidates are vying to become Leader of the Opposition rather than Prime Minister. At least for the time being.
Who is running to be Tory leader?
Here’s what you should know about the MPs who are confirmed to stand in the Conservative leadership race.
James Cleverly
James Cleverly served in Cabinet under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak (Picture: Daniel Leal/AFP)
James Cleverly was the first to enter the leadership race with a post on social media saying he wanted to ‘re-establish our reputation as the party who, in government, helps grow the economy, helps people achieve their goals, their dreams, and their aspirations’.
For years, Cleverly has been one of the most high-profile Conservative MPs in the House of Commons.
He had a spell as party chairman under Boris Johnson, who later appointed him Education Secretary.
Liz Truss made him the first Black Foreign Secretary in UK history, and he stayed in that position when Rishi Sunak took over.
When Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary following the publication of an op-ed in the Times in which she suggested the Met was not tough enough on pro-Palestinian protesters, it was Cleverly who was appointed to replace her.
This made him the final figurehead for the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme – which he reportedly once described as ‘bats**t’.
He’s considered a slick media performer who might be able to act as a bridge between the party’s right-wing and centre.
But he’s faced controversy in the past for making a joke about date rape, which he said undermined the government’s work to tackle drink spiking.
Tom Tugendhat
Tom Tugendhat boosted his profile in the July 2022 Tory leadership contest (Picture: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Shutterstock)
Tom Tugendhat was the second candidate to put himself forward moments after nominations opened.
A former officer in the Territorial Army, Tugendhat is the only one on this list who has never served as a Secretary of State.
He’s served in Cabinet as the Minister for Security, though, and spent five years as the chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Tugendhat first came to the general public’s attention as a candidate in the Conservative leadership contest that followed Boris Johnson’s resignation in July 2022.
But he fell out of the race early and then backed Liz Truss for leader.
He’s considered to be close to the centre of the Tories ideologically, and a recent Savanta poll found he was the most popular leadership contender among both the public and 2024 Tory voters.
His message is to regain the British people’s trust as the previous government, which he was part of, ‘just didn’t deliver’.
But he could struggle to wrangle the party’s more fervently right-wing MPs.
Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick hopes to win with his stance on immigration (Picture: Thomas Krych/ZUMA Press Wire/Shu)
Robert Jenrick was the third to announce that he was running alongside Cleverly and Tugendhat.
Jenrick, a former Housing Secretary, reportedly spent the days after the General Election calling around new and old MPs to set himself up as a potential leadership candidate.
In his media appearances since, he has focused his attention on an issue that defined much of his work in parliament since 2022: immigration.
He was appointed Immigration Minister in Rishi Sunak’s first Cabinet after taking over from Liz Truss as PM and stayed in the role for over a year.
But he resigned in December 2023, arguing that Sunak’s effort to iron out legal issues with the Rwanda scheme did not go nearly far enough.
If the Tories decide they lost the election because their stance on immigration was not hardline enough, Jenrick might be their pick for leader.
But his fast-tracking of a £1billion housing development by a Tory donor could bite him.
Mel Stride
Mel Stride briefly served as the Leader of the House of Commons under Theresa May (Picture: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Shu)
Mel Stride was the fourth Tory to put his name in the ring and said there was a ‘huge job to do’ for the party.
The outsider bet for the Tory leadership contest, Stride was the Work and Pensions Secretary ahead of the election and has kept that role in the Shadow Cabinet.
He appeared on the media rounds a lot over the election campaign – more than any other government minister, in fact.
Perhaps this exemplifies the way he’s viewed within the party: the ultimate moderate safe pair of hands, a decent media performer who’s competent enough in his role.
Like Dame Priti, he was first elected to parliament in 2010, making him a relative veteran on the Tory benches.
However, he retained his Central Devon seat this year by just 61 votes, so he’s got direct experience of the political threats breathing down his party’s neck.
Priti Patel
Priti Patel might hope to make a political comeback in the contest (Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images)
Remember her? Dame Priti has been on the backbenches for almost two years now, since she resigned as Home Secretary upon Liz Truss’s arrival as PM.
But over her three years in the role, she had considerable impact. She was the one who first initiated the plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and she introduced a new points-based immigration system.
Dame Priti was a key torchbearer for the right of the party before she was eclipsed by Braverman following Johnson’s exit from the party.
She was the fifth person to confirm she was running in the leadership contest and the first woman.
Dame Priti was also found to have broken the bit of the Ministerial Code that says civil servants should be treated with respect after allegations of bullying.
Boris Johnson received heavy criticism for sticking by her despite the breach.
Supporters of Johnson and Truss are reportedly among her fans in parliament, so she may get a boost from longer-serving MPs.
She has ‘insisted’ on maintaining conservative values like defending freedom, promoting enterprise, keeping people safe and spreading opportunity remained popular with the public.
She also confirmed those who back her will be rewarded if she becomes leader.
Kemi Badenoch
Kemi Badenoch is currently the shadow Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary (Picture: Lucy North/PA Wire)
Undoubtedly one of the biggest rising stars to emerge from the Conservative ranks in the past few years, Badenoch (pronounced Bayd-noch) is the bookies’ favourite to take over as leader and was the last to announce she was running.
While serving as Business Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, she’s made her name by engaging directly with culture war issues, most prominently surrounding gender.
This wouldn’t be her first pop at the party leadership: she previously came fourth in the July 2022 contest, behind Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and ultimate winner Liz Truss.
Amazingly, Mordaunt and Truss both lost their seat at the last election and Sunak’s stepping down. Could that mean Badenoch is now destined for the top spot?
A win for her would be a win for the right wing of the party, but MPs believe she can also appeal to the centre.
She has promised to ‘speak the truth again’ and wants to renew the party by 2030 by reconfirming ‘our belief in the nation state and the sovereign duty it has, above all else, to serve its own citizens’.
Badenoch has also called for a ‘renewal for capitalism’ and support the ‘ingenuity and industry of our people’.
Who has said they won’t stand to be Tory leader?
Suella Braverman
Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary by two different Prime Ministers (Picture: Jack Taylor/Getty Images)
The former Home Secretary Suella Braverman was widely tipped to put her name up for leader but said she will not stand because she was branded ‘mad, bad and dangerous’.
After Braverman was also found to have breached the Ministerial Code, she was sacked from the position by Liz Truss and replaced by Grant Shapps as Home Secretary.
But just six days later, Truss was out as PM and Sunak decided to reinstate Braverman as Home Secretary.
Before her sacking in November last year, in which she said homelessness was a ‘lifestyle choice’, she displayed a penchant for stoking culture wars with some memorable rants against those she deemed ‘the wokerati’.
She’s continued to provoke outrage in the weeks since the General Election.
Speaking at the US National Conservatism Conference earlier this month, she said: ‘The Progress [Pride] flag says to me one monstrous thing: that I was a member of a government that presided over the mutilation of children in our hospitals.’
Braverman said the Tories election result was down to failures on migration, taxes and ‘transgender ideology’ but said the party ‘does not want to hear this. And so I will bow out here’.
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