Next leader will be from populist wing of party after James Cleverly loses out in chaotic final MPs’ vote
The next Conservative leader will be from the populist right of the party after Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick were selected as the final two candidates, with Tory MPs eliminatingshocked, and some Labour and Lib Dem officials openly delighted, a final vote of Tory MPs saw Badenoch come first, just ahead of Jenrick, with Cleverly last.
The result was met with dismay among some Tory MPs, many of whom are on the more moderate One Nation wing of the party yet are left with a choice between two rightwingers as a result of attempts at tactical voting. “We’ve just been too clever by half,” one said. The latest twist in the contest saw immediate conjectures of plotting and vote-lending, including the notion that Cleverly’s team sought to keep Badenoch, initially seen as the favourite of party members, off the final ballot but badly miscalculated.
Both have argued that they can unite the party, and Jenrick was long seen as a centrist. However, after he quit as immigration minister in Rishi Sunak’s government he has taken a more right-leaning and sometimes populist approach, promising to immediately pull the UK out of the ECHR if he become prime minister.
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