2 weeks Ago By Sam Lister
Kemi Badenoch is the new Conservative Party leader after winning a gruelling four month contest. The ex-cabinet minister claimed the party’s top job after seeing off Robert Jenrick in a ballot of Tory members. Ms Badenoch takes over from Rishi Sunak , who triggered the contest after the disastrous general election campaign.
The new leader will now get to work drawing up her shadow cabinet team. Mr Sunak will return to the backbenches along with his former chancellor, Jeremy Hunt , who said it was time for fresh faces at the top of the party. Former leadership rival James Cleverly said he wants to return to the backbenches, telling the FT: “I’m not particularly in the mood to be boxed back into a narrow band again.
” The ballot closed on Thursday after months of campaigning in a contest that started out with six leadership hopefuls. Former home secretary Dame Priti Patel was the first candidate to be eliminated, followed by shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride. Ms Badenoch started the contest as frontrunner but Mr Jenrick gained early momentum among MPs.
By the time the race reached the so-called beauty contest stage at Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, Mr Cleverly surged ahead. Tom Tugendhat was ejected from the contest the following week by MPs and Mr Cleverly was widely believed to be a shoo-in for the final two. But he was booted out of the contest after coming third by just a few votes.
Allies believe his supporters tried too hard to secure a particular candidate for him to face in the final round of voting and accidentally let him crash out. The ex-foreign secretary admitted it “came as a bit of a shock . .
. oomph, a bit of a punch to the gut”. His departure from the contest saw Ms Badenoch return to be the frontrunner according to bookmakers.
The Conservatives returned MPs in 121 seats at the July poll, down hundreds on their 2019 result, having secured less than 25% of the vote nationally. Ms Badenoch held the women and equalities brief and 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. Former immigration minister Mr Jenrick has put leaving the European Convention on Human Rights at the centre of his campaign.
Donations to Mr Jenrick’s campaign totalled £480,000 and Ms Badenoch has received £422,500 over the course of the campaign, according to the latest Register of MPs’ Interests..
