Cleverly out, Jenrick v Badenoch confirmed, after shock leadership vote
In a surprise result to all, centre-right candidate James Cleverly – who placed first in yesterday’s vote – is out.
Astonished murmurs filled the Tory benches in a House of Commons committee meeting room today as Bob Blackman MP announced the results of the Conservative leadership contest’s parliamentary ballot, writes Josh Schlicht.
In a surprise to all, James Cleverly – who placed first in yesterday’s vote – is out, leaving Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch as the final contenders for the top position.
Cleverly lost two votes overnight, dropping from 39 to 37, while Jenrick and Badenoch gained 10 and 12 votes respectively, rising to 41 and 42.
The result came as a shock to even the most seasoned Westminster analysts as nearly everyone had anticipated a decisive Cleverly victory upon yesterday’s elimination of the Tory's centrist candidate,Tom Tugendhat.
The twenty MPs Tugendhat represented were expected to flock to Cleverly’s pitch for a “normal” Conservative Party focused on low taxes, house building, and small-government Thatcherite principles. Instead, the traditional centre was abandoned as MPs rallied to the right, boosting Badenoch and Jenrick into the final two spots.
The outcome may have come as a surprise to Jenrick himself, who in an interview with Sky News this morning indicated his displeasure with the “horse trading”, or strategic vote-swapping, which occurred in yesterday’s run off. Today, it seems Jenrick was the beneficiary, rather than the victim, of such vote-manoeuvring as the former immigration minister comfortably made second place.
Speculation has arisen that the vote’s result was inadvertent, a misstep by the Cleverly campaign as it attempted to upend one right-wing candidate or the other, ultimately empowering both.
Badenoch and Jenrick have catered to the party’s right by making immigration a primary focus of their campaigns. Badenoch has consistently taken a firm stance on limiting irregular and regular migration and triggered a backlash recently after suggesting certain cultures should be prioritised for entry over others since “not all are equally valid”.
While Badenoch has only hinted at leaving international asylum treaties, Jenrick has adamantly opposed the UK’s participation in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The proposal to exit has elicited strong rebukes from the left and the centre but resonates with many conservatives who believe it is the only feasible way to regain control of the nation’s borders.
Although he has been keen to present himself as more hardline than Badenoch on immigration in recent weeks, Jenrick has been more in line with the party’s traditional centre in the past on issues of NHS reform, taxes, and foreign policy. He has asserted that his leadership could be a “common ground”, recapturing millions of disaffected Reform voters on the right as well as those lost to Lib Dems on the left.
With the Tory party’s coffers badly depleted following its disastrous election campaign, both candidates are required to contribute £150,000 to Conservative party headquarters for the upcoming contest.
Although Jenrick has had the strongest fundraising campaign thus far, Badenoch appears equally equipped for the task coming in close behind her rival in donor funds.
As the member vote – slated to conclude in early November – beckons, Badenoch appears to have a commanding lead among party members. However, today’s result shows that any outcome is possible in this exciting, atypical and unpredictable Tory leadership race.
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