Six candidates have announced their candidacy so far.
As nominations for the Conservative Party leadership race close, Kemi Badenoch has announced her candidacy and Suella Braverman has withdrawn.
Badenoch, who was initially seen as the favourite by bookmakers, will be competing for the top spot alongside Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverley and Robert Jenrick.
According to rules drawn up by the 1922 Conservative Parliamentary Committee and the party executive, the deadline for nominations is 2.30pm on Monday.
Writing in The Times, Badenoch blamed the party’s abysmal performance in the general election on an “incoherent” set of policies.
The shadow housing secretary accused successive Conservative prime ministers of making the UK “increasingly liberal” and condoning “nasty identity politics”.
“We governed the left while talking to the right,” she said.
She said “renewal” would be the new leader’s first task, with the aim of rebuilding the party by 2030.
While Cleverley called for an end to intra-Conservative infighting and Pretty called for the party to “unite” in the leadership election, Badenoch said there were “larger questions about what it means to be a Conservative today”.
She writes, “Without it, there would be no Reform Party. It is not enough to call for ‘united and victorious’. We must ask ourselves, ‘What are we united for? What are we winning for?'”
Meanwhile, Mr Braverman said he had garnered enough support to contest succeeding Rishi Sunak but had decided to “stand down” after being labelled “mad, bad and dangerous”.
“There is no point in me running for Conservative leader when the majority of MPs don’t agree with my diagnosis and prescription,” she wrote in the Telegraph.
To run, a candidate needs a proposer, a supporter, and eight other supporters.
The Parliamentary Party has narrowed the field to four candidates, who will then present their case at the Conservative Party Conference, which runs from September 29 to October 2.
The final two names chosen by the Congress party will be subject to online voting by party members, which will close on October 31 and the results will be announced on November 2.
release date: Radio News Hub
