Who is in the race to replace Sunak at the top of the Tory party

Six senior Tories are set to fight it out in a battle for the future of the Conservative Party in the wake of its worst-ever election result.

Here are the candidates who have declared they are running in the race to replace Rishi Sunak.

– Kemi Badenoch

The bookmakers’ favourite said an “incoherent” set of policies were to blame for the party suffering its worst general election result.

The shadow housing secretary used a Times article to launch her leadership bid, accusing successive Conservative prime ministers of allowing Britain to become “increasingly liberal” and tolerating “nasty identity politics”.

She became an MP in 2017 and as minister for women and equalities, made a name for herself as an outspoken voice on gender issues, including by calling for a change to the Equality Act so that sex is defined only as someone’s biological sex.

She said “renewal” was the first task for a new party leader and that she would aim to rebuild the party by 2030 and respond to Reform UK’s threat from the right.

The former business and trade secretary made a leadership attempt in 2022 after Boris Johnson’s resignation, coming fourth.

The North West Essex MP was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, but grew up in Nigeria and the US, returning to the UK at the age of 16. She has a Masters in engineering as well as being a Bachelor of Laws, and has worked at private bank Coutts and The Spectator.

Ladbrokes has her as 7-4 favourite, while William Hill also makes her the favourite at 15-8.

– Robert Jenrick

The former immigration minister is seen as the most likely contender to Ms Badenoch from the right of the party.

He has successfully seen off his former Home Office boss Suella Braverman, who abandoned her own hopes of the leadership, and is expected to campaign on a tough stance of cutting immigration and pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Nicknamed “Robert Generic” when first elected to the Commons in 2014, he has gradually moved to the right.

The MP for Newark resigned as a minister last December, claiming the then-draft legislation designed to revive the Rwanda deportation policy did “not go far enough”.

He is 5-2 with Ladbrokes, 11-4 with William Hill.

– Tom Tugendhat

The shadow security minister looks set to fight it out with James Cleverly to become the main centrist candidate.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the Tonbridge MP indicated he would be prepared to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if it was necessary to secure the UK’s borders.

He denied the party would be split by the contest, because on key issues including the ECHR, gender, taxes, defence and net zero, all Tories shared the same “common sense” views.

He previously unsuccessfully ran in 2022, when he pitched himself as the candidate untarnished by the scandals that dogged Mr Johnson and his government.

Having first entered Parliament in 2015, Mr Tugendhat chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee for five years and previously served in the military.

His odds are 4-1 with William Hill, 5-1 at Ladbrokes.

– James Cleverly

The shadow home secretary was the first Tory formally to declare his ambition to succeed Mr Sunak.

He said he could “unite the Conservative Party and overturn (Sir Keir) Starmer’s loveless landslide”.

The party needs to expand its base of support and shake off the impression that it is more focused on infighting than serving the public, he argued.

Mr Cleverly, a centrist, took an apparent swipe at the right of his party when he warned against “sacrificing pragmatic government in the national interest on the altar of ideological purity”.

In a social media video, he highlighted his credentials as having been both home and foreign secretary, as well as serving as party chairman when the Tories won their landslide in 2019.

Mr Cleverly was first elected as the Conservative MP for Braintree in May 2015.

After an injury cut short his Army career, he got a business degree and joined the Territorial Army. He worked in magazine and digital publishing before setting up his own business. He was a London Assembly member before he became an MP.

Mr Cleverly is at 9-2 with William Hill and 6-1 at Ladbrokes.

– Dame Priti Patel

Dame Priti is a longstanding Eurosceptic who has said she was inspired to join the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher.

She became an MP in 2010 and served in Cabinet positions under Theresa May and Mr Johnson, as international development secretary and home secretary respectively.

Dame Priti was a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, and as home secretary launched a points-based immigration system, signed the agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers to the country, and sealed returns deals with Albania and Serbia.

She resigned as home secretary after Liz Truss became Tory leader.

She said she could deliver the “experienced and strong” leadership needed to unite the Tories’ disparate factions.

Launching her leadership bid with a Telegraph column, she said she would use the “huge talent pool … of Conservative Party members” to “solve the big challenges that Labour, the Lib Dems and Reform don’t have answers to”.

Dame Priti’s odds with both William Hill and Ladbrokes are 8-1.

– Mel Stride

Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride is one of Mr Sunak’s closest allies and his frequent media appearances made him the face of the Tory campaign in the run-up to the election disaster.

The MP for Central Devon, said he believed he was the right person to “unite the party”.

He said: “We’ve substantially lost the trust of the British people and we’ve lost our reputation for competence, and I believe that I’m in a very good position to address those issues going forward.”

But the bookmakers, at least, do not agree: Mr Stride is available at 20-1 from William Hill and 28-1 at Ladbrokes.

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00:0129 Jul 2024358 words

PoliticsTories

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Published: 29/07/2024 by Radio NewsHub

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