The leadership of the British Conservative Party will be decided between six MPs who will run to succeed former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after the severe defeat suffered in the general elections of July 4 against the Labour Party. The process will follow the usual system, so the parliamentary group will eliminate candidates in successive votes, until two remain, from among which some 160,000 members (the Tories The exact number of candidates (who have never confirmed the exact number) will choose who will take on the party’s desert journey in opposition after 14 years in power. The winner will be announced on November 2. Former Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch is leading the party’s preferences, followed by former Secretary of State for Immigration Robert Jenrick. However, the unofficial spokesperson for the most reactionary Conservatism, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, has not entered the race.
In the internal debate on the deadlines for renewing the party leadership, those who advocated a slower process to avoid hasty decisions and past mistakes have prevailed. Thus, with the first two candidates ruled out at the beginning of September, the remaining four will have the opportunity to defend their vision at the annual congress. tory The plan is to be between 29 September and 2 October. Eight days later, after two more votes, the final duo will emerge from which the members will decide the winner. As a result of this plan, the acting leader, Rishi Sunak, will have to remain in power for almost four months, longer than any other prime minister removed from power since 1979.
According to internal polls, the current favourite is former minister Badenoch, the latest to declare her intention to run for the succession, despite having been the first to secure the ten endorsements of her parliamentary colleagues required to run. For months, Badenoch had consistently topped the popularity list of government ministers compiled by Conservative Home, a key platform for understanding what is happening internally in the party. In a recent poll, 26% of the membership backed her as leader, double the number of her closest rivals.
Combative in style and always ready for a dialectical and controversial battle in the so-called “culture wars”, Badenoch describes herself as an example of the “British dream”. Aged 44 and raised in a wealthy Nigerian family, she was sent to London at the age of 16, where she was born almost by accident, after her mother travelled to the British capital to treat complications from her pregnancy. Her appeal among the rank and file and her more right-wing ideological doctrine, in tune with the majority positioning of the militants, make her the adversary to beat.
Of his opponents, the one with the most similar ideological leanings and, therefore, aspiring to the same support is the former Secretary of State for Immigration Robert Jenrick, who had resigned because he considered the Sunak Government too soft in relation to the ultimately truncated plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda. Second in the Conservative Home barometer, Jenrick needs to shake off the label of lacking charisma, although since the electoral defeat, he has risen in popularity.
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At the opposite pole is Tom Tugendhat, former Secretary of State for Security, representative of the most centrist current of the tories. Tugendhat would be the answer of those who believe that the challenge is to compete on the centrist ground of the Labour government, rather than to lean towards the most right-wing party, to dispute the field with the Reform UK party, led by the populist Nigel Farage.
James Cleverly, a former foreign secretary and also a former home secretary, meanwhile, decided to stand, according to his circle, because of the number of his fellow MPs who had told him that he was the best positioned to defeat Badenoch in the campaign phase. The campaign goal of this former military man is unity, a complicated ambition in a fractured party that also aspires to be led by the former Labour minister Mel Stride, known primarily as Sunak’s closest ally.
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel completes the list, also with an appeal to leave internal battles behind, a proposal questioned due to her controversial profile, which includes allegations of workplace harassment and even of having broken the ministerial code.
Suella Braverman, former Home Secretary, who has become the unofficial spokesperson for the most reactionary Conservatives and has harshly criticised Sunak’s immigration policy, will not be taking part in the race.
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