The Conservative Party’s former cabinet minister Priti Patel has been eliminated from the party’s leadership contest following the first round of voting by Tory MPs. Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, received the most votes from MPs, with 28 in total. Kemi Badenoch received 22 votes, followed closely by James Cleverly with 21. Tom Tugendhat and Mel Stride received 17 and 16 votes, respectively. However, Dame Priti came in last with only 14 votes.
The voting process will continue until there are only two candidates left. At that point, party members will choose who they want to lead them. The winner will replace Rishi Sunak, who stepped down from the role after leading the Conservatives to their worst general election performance in July.
Further rounds of voting will be held next Tuesday to reduce the number of candidates to four before the party’s annual conference at the end of September. An intensive round of hustings will take place after the conference from 8 October, lasting three days, until only two candidates are left.
Some of the leadership hopefuls took to social media to thank their supporters. Mrs Badenoch, who is currently topping the polls of Tory members, believes that the first round of voting has demonstrated “huge support” for her campaign. Mr Cleverly claimed that “momentum” was on his side, and that only he could “unite our party with Conservative values.” Meanwhile, Mr Tugendhat said that he was “ready to serve, lead and act to make Britain a better place.”
Several dozen Conservative MPs gathered in a Parliamentary committee to hear the results of the first ballot, with numbers significantly depleted following July’s election defeat. Throughout her tenure as the home secretary under Boris Johnson’s government, Dame Priti acquired a reputation as a law-and-order Conservative. She spearheaded the Conservative government’s initiative to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.
In her leadership campaign, Dame Priti vowed to unify the party and get it prepared for the next general election. The remaining five candidates will now compete for the votes of the MPs who backed Dame Priti in this round. Many MPs have not yet revealed their preference in this stage of the contest, possibly to avoid antagonising the eventual winner
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