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The six candidates in the running for leadership. Alamy

Sunak's on the way out and these are the six MPs vying to take over as top Tory

The new leader will be announced on November 2.

NOMINATIONS FOR THE role of Tory leader have officially closed with a total of six candidates presenting themselves as would-be saviour of the Conservative Party.

Rishi Sunak, who led the Conservative Party to their worst ever defeat, will remain as leader until a successor is appointed. The new leader will be announced on November 2.

Shadow minister Kemi Badenoch has been the latest MP to throw her hat in the ring, via an op-ed in The Times on Sunday

The hopefuls will each need ten MP backers to get to the next stage. 

James Cleverly

First to declare his candidacy, former home secretary Cleverly said that the Conservative Party needs to expand its support base to succeed in future. 

In video posted to X, Cleverly highlighted his credentials – having been both home and foreign secretary, as well as serving as party chairman when the Tories won their landslide victory in the 2019 election.

Speaking as he announced his intention to run, Cleverly said that he could “unite the Conservative Party and overturn Starmer’s loveless landslide”. 

He has been an MP for Braintree since May 2015.

Tom Tugendhat

Now his second attempt at leadership of his shaken party, Tugendhat is a shadow security minister. He is viewed as the most centrist of the candidates. 

He unsuccessfully ran for leadership in 2022, but was eliminated in the third round of voting. Having first entered parliament in 2015, Tugendhat chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee for five years and previously served in the military for a decade.

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

Robert Jenrick

Former immigration minister Robert Jenrick has been a Member of Parliament representing Newark since 2014, then nicknamed “Robert Generic” as he was perceived as a run-of-the-mill MP. He backed a vote to Remain in the EU in 2016, but gradually moved further right.

Jenrick resigned as a minister in December, claiming then-draft legislation designed to revive the controversial Rwanda deportation policy did “not go far enough”.

Mel Stride

Veteran MP for Central Devon, Mel Stride has undertaken a variety of roles during his 14 years in parliament, most recently as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from October 2022 to July 2024.

In a post on X at the tail end of his first week on the leadership campaign Stride said: “We must deliver unity and drive change to secure victory. I am the best candidate to do that”.

In the recent general election, Stride hung onto his seat by 61 votes.He is regarded as being more moderate than several of his fellow Conservatives in the race.

Priti Patel 

Priti Patel is a longstanding Eurosceptic who has cited Margaret Thatcher as her inspiration to join the Conservative Party. She became an MP in 2010 and has served as international developmental secretary and home secretary.

She was a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, and as home secretary signed the agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers to the country.

She resigned as home secretary after Liz Truss took over the role of Tory leader. 

Kemi Badenoch 

The last candidate to announce her leadership campaign, Kemi Badenoch entered the race with a pledge to bring the Tories back into government by 2030.

In an op-ed for The Times, Badenoch wrote: “Today my campaign is launching with an explicit focus on renewing our part for 2030 – the first full year we can be back in government and the first year of a new decade.”

This is her second attempt at leadership. In 2022, she came fourth in a vote on the successor of Boris Johnson. She was elected to represent the constituency of Saffron Walden between 2017 and 2024.

In July, she was elected to represent North West Essex following a boundary change. She has served as Secretary of State for Business and Trade from 2023 to 2024, and President of the Board of Trade and as Minister for Women and Equalities from 2022 to 2024. 

Includes reporting by Press Association.

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    Mute Buster Lawless
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    Jul 29th 2024, 8:28 PM

    You’d like to say ..”mmm, X is the best of a bad bunch”…..but looking at this list it’s just a ‘bad bunch’ full stop. Anyone but Pretti Patel though

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    Mute 9QRixo8H
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    Jul 29th 2024, 8:43 PM

    Not as bad as Vance who “did not have sexual relations with that sofa”!!!! #MadamPresident2024

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    Mute 9QRixo8H
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    Jul 29th 2024, 8:33 PM

    Their most “centrist” candidate wants to leave the Convention on Human Rights!!! Says it all really, these Radical Right have a disdain for human rights and people have abandoned them in their droves. Labour will be in power for decades.

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    Mute Uí Braonáin
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    Jul 30th 2024, 12:13 AM

    @9QRixo8H: Had a chuckle when I read that. The most pro-Israeli of a pro-Israeli gang is also their most ‘centrist candidate’.

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    Mute F Fitzgerald
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    Jul 30th 2024, 12:21 PM

    @9QRixo8H: Indeed. I see that British people still don’t understand that their own politicians signed the Lisbon Treaty only on condition that they could add their own amendment. That UK amendment opted Britain out of the International charter of human rights. They’ve left it to their rulers for way too long and that’s an example of how their rulers got away with dismissing the principles of human rights. I don’t think enough people saw that at the time – tabloids assured them all that their politicians knew exactly what they were doing. Unfortunately, this was true. And British people were deported out of the blue because of that disregard.
    Some day they’ve got to do better by their voters.

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    Mute James Leahy
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    Jul 29th 2024, 8:40 PM

    Would like to see British Patel as leader as she would accelerate the demise of what’s left of the despicable Tory party.

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    Mute Buster Lawless
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    Jul 29th 2024, 8:53 PM

    @James Leahy: True James……guess you’d have to counter -balance that with her utter disdain & contempt for Ireland/ anything Irish

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    Mute Willie Marty
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    Jul 29th 2024, 9:13 PM

    @Buster Lawless: was she the one who said we should starve the Irish at one stage.No concept of history and not much between the ears either.

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    Mute Uí Braonáin
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    Jul 30th 2024, 12:15 AM

    @James Leahy: Don’t overestimate the British voter. The Tories will be back in power soon enough. It’s quite the conservative country.

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    Mute Jb Walshe
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    Jul 29th 2024, 8:58 PM

    They deserve all the disarray they can muster up and more,pity auld thatcher isn’t around to see it.

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    Mute Be Lucky
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    Jul 29th 2024, 9:56 PM

    Thoughts with those and their loved ones in Southport. The headline below needs changing. To ‘kill’ means to make someone or something die. ‘Murder’ refers to the crime of deliberately causing someone’s death.

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    Mute Richard Reynolds
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    Jul 29th 2024, 11:29 PM

    A Dribble of Deplorables

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    Mute Padraig O'Brien
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    Jul 30th 2024, 12:29 PM

    We think our shower are bad!!!

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