Former UK home secretary Priti Patel’s dreams of leading the UK Conservatives are in tatters after she, one of the so-called “arch-Brexiteers”, was eliminated in the party’s opening Members of Parliament ballot.
Unexpectedly, former immigration secretary Robert Jenrick led the MP poll with 28 votes followed by bookies’ favourite Kemi Badenoch with 22 votes.
James Cleverly, the shadow home secretary, received 21 votes, while the shadow minister for security Tom Tugendhat won 17 and shadow pensions secretary Mel Stride gained 16.
A total of 118 Tory MPs cast their votes, with three passing on the opportunity – for the time being.
A second vote will be held early in the week starting September 9 to cull another candidate from the race.
The remaining quartet will then face an onstage hustings at the Conservative conference starting on September 29. There is then due to be another vote by MPs before party members are given a final two names on whom to decide, with the final result announcement expected on November 2.
While Patel’s demise was widely expected, Jenrick’s result was seemingly a surprise to party insiders. It came after the latest survey undertaken by the Tories’ relatively influential Conservative Home website had Badenoch leading by 16 points over her rival Jenrick.
That was despite her missing several hustings and taking a holiday break while her contesters mustered support.
More accurately, the Con Home survey forecast bad news for both Patel and shadow pensions secretary Mel Stride, both of whom trailed the survey field. That was after they failed to ignite their individual campaigns and win the support they needed to lead since the resignation of former prime minister Rishi Sunak in early July.
As the candidates have jostled for attention, the highlight of a lacklustre campaign so far, for many, has been the range of merchandise available to supporters. They include personally branded “tour” T-shirts, American Football-style large foam hands, water bottles, coffee mugs, tote bags and competing slogans.
Yet, with the battle starting in earnest, Brexit-supporters Badenoch and Cleverly have gone on the offensive after both Jenrick and Tugendhat – who both voted Remain in 2016 – strayed onto the topic of migration targets and reignited the idea of leaving the European Court of Human Rights.
They appeared to blame that administration for scuppering the Tory Rwanda asylum seekers-deportation scheme and the stubborn immigration difficulties that have beset the UK – despite Brexit.
In response to the suggestions from her rivals, Badenoch told supporters on September 2: “It’s not just about throwing out numbers and throwing out targets. Something is wrong with the system. People who are throwing out numbers and saying they will leave the ECHR and so on are giving you easy answers.”
She claimed that other nations in the ECHR were managing to deport 78 per cent of the people coming into their countries, saying it was clear that the convention was not the problem and that leaving would not solve it.
Cleverly said: “The ECHR is not the body that stopped the planes taking off just before I became home secretary. It was the UK supreme court which stopped those planes taking off.”
Immigration remains a key issue for the party membership and all six candidates admit the electorate became disillusioned with the Conservatives over the failure to deliver on immigration promises.
In addition, many also blame the inability of the Tories to deal with the rise of another arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage’s Reform party at the UK general elections due in May 2025.
