Four Conservative Party leadership candidates have outlined their plans to reform the party following its loss in the general election earlier this year. Speaking at the party’s conference in Birmingham, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, and Tom Tugendhat aimed to sway party members to vote for them in the upcoming contest. Cleverly suggested that the party needed to be “more normal” to attract back voters who had switched to Reform UK, while Tugendhat pledged a “new Conservative revolution” aimed at improving public services. Badenoch stated that she would “reprogramme” the UK based on “renewed Conservative principles”, while Jenrick called for a freeze in net migration.
The conference has been dominated by the contest, as the party seeks to recover from the unprecedented defeat it suffered in July. For the first time, the four candidates closed the conference with their speeches to party members instead of outgoing leader Rishi Sunak. Next week, the four candidates will be whittled down to two by Tory MPs in a vote. Members will then select the winner from the final two, with the announcement to be made on 2 November. In their speeches, all four candidates attacked Prime Minister Keir Starmer while claiming that the party could win the next general election under their leadership, but only by changing its direction.
Tugendhat, a former security minister, told the conference that there had not been enough “substance” in the Tory leadership campaign. He referred to his previous experience in the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and how it would prove him an effective leader. He urged voters who did not vote for the Tories to come back to the party, saying that the Tories needed to “focus on what the British people need and be absolutely ruthless about delivering it”.
Cleverly opened his speech by apologizing on behalf of Tory MPs for the general election result, before reminiscing on his experience of failure in the world of business. He named former US President Ronald Reagan as his political hero and urged the Conservative Party to follow his example. Jenrick, who is currently the bookies’ favourite to win, stated that he would rebuild “a new Conservative party” reminiscent of New Labour in the 1990s. He promised “an effective freeze in net migration” and pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights.
Badenoch, the final speaker of the evening, announced her plan to reboot the British state, highlighting “aggressive identity politics” and “socialism” as key problems. She claimed that the UK’s system of government was “broken” and in need of reform. If elected leader, she promised a “comprehensive plan to reprogramme the British state” which would focus on overhauling international agreements, human rights laws, and the NHS, among other things. She described her campaign as an attempt at “renewal”, made in time for the next general election
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