Six candidates vie to lead UK’s embattled Conservative party

AFP | London, United Kingdom

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com   

Six senior UK Conservatives will face off in the party leadership contest to succeed Rishi Sunak, as the deadline for candidates to enter the race passed yesterday.

Right-wing favourite Kemi Badenoch was the last to throw her hat in the ring to replace Sunak, who resigned after the party’s historic general election defeat on July 4.

James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat will also be in the running for the top job to replace Sunak, who has officially stepped down but will stay on until a successor is elected.

Party MPs will hold a series of votes to narrow the list down to four candidates, who will make their pitches at the Conservative Party conference at the end of September, and the MPs will then decide on a final pair.

The party’s membership will then vote for the winner, set to be announced on November 2.

Now in opposition, after 14 years in power, the party will need a candidate who can unite the 121 Tory MPs remaining in parliament.

The nominees will have to show they can win back voters that defected to the hard-right Reform UK party in the election, raising fears among Tories that they were losing their core electoral base.

Badenoch -- who served as secretary for business and trade, and minister for women and equalities in Sunak’s cabinet -- announced her leadership bid in the Times newspaper.

She wrote that Tory prime ministers had allowed the country to become “increasingly liberal” and tolerated “nasty identity politics”.