Kemi Badenoch v Robert Jenrick: a Tory leadership final not to miss
October 9, 2024 3:55 pm(Updated 4:00 pm)
Conservative MPs gave the party membership what they wanted – a battle between two right-wing contenders. Kemi Badenoch becomes the front-runner in the Tory leadership contest.
Throughout this seemingly never-ending leadership contest, all candidates have presented conflicting polling that shows they’d be the most popular candidate with the party’s 100,000-strong grassroots. But by the time it came to whittle the number down to two, Tory MPs had to make a calculation.
Simply put, Badenoch and Jenrick are on the right of the party, meaning those MPs who wanted a right-winger needed to decide who had the best chance of beating the late frontrunner Cleverly. While Badenoch has been a longtime favourite with members, her support has declined as the race has gone on. A bumpy week at Tory conference convinced some Tory MPs she was a risky livewire. Supporters still believed she could beat the former foreign secretary.
Until Wednesday Cleverly was widely viewed as the standout performer at last week’s conference and his surge into the top spot suggested MPs had been guided by what happened in Birmingham. But having lost votes overnight, there were immediate rumours of vote-lending.
Meanwhile, Jenrick had a solid conference but saw his support in the polls fall sharply. A number of Tom Tugendhat’s supporters were put off by Jenrick’s claim last week that British special forces are “killing rather than capturing terrorists” because of the European Convention on Human Rights. They particularly disliked his campaign video which used footage of a comrade of Tugendhat’s from his military days, who later died. Nonetheless, Jenrick was boosted by overnight endorsements.
Unfortunately for reporters sitting in Parliament’s cavernous committee meeting room, none of the candidate showed up so no one could judge their just-lost-the-Oscar-so-very-pleased-for-you close-up shot. Instead, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Bob Blackman read out the results. He read out Badenoch first – 42 votes. “She’s got it,” reporters said. There was a gasp when Cleverly lost.
