Robert Jenrick has found himself in an early pole position in the Tory leadership race as he topped the first round ballot – as Priti Patel became the first to be knocked out. The Mail has more.
Mr. Jenrick, the former Immigration Minister, secured the most votes from MPs with 28, six ahead of Kemi Badenoch on 22.
However Shadow Housing Secretary Ms. Badenoch, the previous favourite, was barely ahead of ex-Home Secretary James Cleverly, who received 21 to place third.
Ms. Patel will play no further part after coming last with 14, behind Mel Stride (16) and Tom Tugendhat (17).
MPs are whittling the numbers down to four before a ‘beauty parade’ at the party conference in Birmingham at the start of next month.
The figures finally give a clear indication of support for the candidates, after barely half of the 121 politicians still standing after the election rout publicly declared an allegiance. A second round will take place next week.
Despite underperforming expectations, Ms. Badenoch hailed “huge support”, while allies insisted she had “momentum”. But the wide spread of support suggests there will be a lot of votes in play in the later stages.
It comes after the latest poll by the ConservativeHome website found Ms. Badenoch is favourite among activists, with 34% support compared to 18% for her nearest rival Mr. Jenrick.
Jenrick, a Remain-voting but latterly pro-Brexit MP, has emerged as a hardliner on immigration, quitting as Sunak’s Immigration Minister when he saw that the Rwanda plan was destined to fail without beefing up, and now unequivocally advocating withdrawal from the ECHR as necessary to deal with illegal immigration. His commitments on the wider culture war though seem to be much soggier.
Badenoch has been more nuanced, noting that other ECHR-member countries manage to reject far more asylum applications than the U.K., and a more systemic solution is required. This is a fair point, but it begs the question whether given the heavy pro-immigration biases running through the U.K. immigration system and judiciary, anything less than ECHR withdrawal would be adequate to force our judges to stop making Britain such a soft touch. The former Equality Minister is much stronger on the culture war and resisting woke nonsense, however.
At this stage it’s looking like a battle between Jenrick and Badenoch – though MPs are unlikely to allow both to end up in the final two for members to choose between, meaning whichever of the two the Tory rump allows into the final showdown will probably emerge victorious against whichever hapless centrist they put up against him or her.
Stop Press: In the Telegraph, Tim Stanley says that Jenrick is the surprise winner of the first ballot, Badenoch and Tugendhat under-performed and James Cleverly surpassed expectations.
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None of these will cause me to return as a Tory voter.
I’ll *never* vote Tory again, ever after the last 4-5 years, and I know plenty of a similar mindset
The only one I want is the one that will never be leader —Suella Braverman
You must be joking.
How many political parties have this silly slogan “Change”—–What the f..k does that mean? —NOTHING. When I keep seeing “Change” next to their podiums all it does is make me realise that NOTHING is changing at all.
It’s Obama’s famed “Hopey changey” thing, innit…
As if “change” always meant something good. This is the level of the morons running the show
Yes, it’s a Marxist jargon term, as pointed out by retired Royal Navy Lt. Commander Brian Gerrish of the UK Column, in his expose of the Marxist “Common Purpose” subversive “Change Agents”, trained on “Leadership Courses” to “Go Beyond Authority” when the time came. The courses were given to Conservative Party officials/civil servants starting during David Cameron’s time as PM, I think. They were designed and led by Julia Middleton, former editor of “Marxism Today”.
That’s right: Marxists allowed to train Tory Party officials. More evidence that the Uniparty is Globalist and Communist.
I guess it’s because they don’t think ‘stability / competence’ is positive enough sounding… marketing bs as we all know
The LibCONs won’t allow Jenrick to be on the ballot.
I predict the final will be between Badenoch (WEF approved) v Tugendhat (Bilderberger).
I’ve met Jenrick many times, whilst not mad evil like Starmer, he has no back bone at all. I’m astounded he’s risen this far. Not a bad guy but he’s utterly weak.
I agree and I have never met him—–He seems to me to be just another politician that thinks politics is like a supermarket where you try to persuade people to but the same stuff as everyone else is selling from you rather than another outlet.
None of these candidates can legally occupy the post of UK Prime Minister, since they are all either Jewish, like Jenrick and Jewish/Hindu Patel, or Jewish/Catholics, like Tugendhat, or Catholics, like the rest of them.
Neither Jewish Starmer, nor Hindu Sunak, nor Catholic Truss have legally occupied the post of Prime Minister.
The Law of This Land clearly states that No Catholic, Jewish, or by extension Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist or anyone but a PROTESTANT may legally hold the posts of MONARCH or MONARCH’S PRIME MINISTER.
That is the Law of This Land, whether you like it or not.
Let’s have an actual Protestant Englishman, or Welshman, or Scotsman, or Northern Irishman as Prime Minister for a change, instead of all these woke and illegal candidates.
Disraeli was a Jew, he was PM twice in the 19th century.
Though not legally, it would seem.
Disraeli did hold the post legally, as a convert from Judaism to the Protestant Church of England.
Disraeli forced VAT upon us all, after saying it was just a temporary “luxury tax”, and he was also infamous for blocking attempts to stop the wholesale, preventable drownings of British mariners.
“The House of Commons was in an uproar. The Honourable Member for Derby had called the Prime Minister, Mr. Disraeli, “a villain”, and he had shaken his fist at the Speaker.
The cause of the disturbance was Samuel Plimsoll, a Liberal M.P. He was furious because Disraeli had announced the dropping of a Bill which Plimsoll believed would save the lives of hundreds of sailors.
The man who had insulted Disraeli was born on 10th February, 1824, in Bristol. He came to London to set up as a coal merchant.
Forced to live in the cheapest lodgings he could find, he came in contact with the poorest people. He was shocked at their plight and was determined to help them – particularly the seamen. He had been horrified to learn that greedy owners of ships – “coffin ships”, the sailors called them – insured them for much more than their value… Read more »
Nicolette Jones wrote a great recent biography of Samuel Plimsoll, called “The Plimsoll Sensation”—The Great Campaign to Save Lives at Sea, winner of the Mountbatten Maritime Prize.
He converted
Jeremy, well done—you’re one of the very few to look up anything about Disraeli, and you discovered the truth!
As Jeremy P99 correctly noted below, Disraeli converted to the Protestant Church of England for social advancement in this Protestant country, like many Jewish people in earlier times. He also knew, like Boris Johnson, that he could never be Prime Minister unless he converted to the Protestant faith, as Catholic Boris did at university when he found out.
That’s why Rees-Mogg has never put himself forward for the PM post, because he knows the law, and has the integrity not to violate it, unlike Liz Truss and the rest of the shower.
That’s also why Tony Blair had to wait until he left office to convert to his wife’s Maryolatry.
Even Mel Stride walk all over Priti Patel
I’m struggling to recall any of these tossers’ names among the tiny number of MPs who voted against “covid” restrictions early on. They can all “jog on” as far as I’m concerned.
None of them did. They all went along with the madness and Jenrick thought the “rules” about staying at home meant he could decide which of his 3 homes he could stay in and move between them all.
I don’t remember any of them having a Bridgen-like conversion after the event either.
I thought it interesting that MPs will not allow the two most popular candidates (with members) into the final vote by them. Clearly MPs are determined to get the leader nearest to what they’ve had through most of the past two decades – globalist, woke content, big spending, net zero and high immigration.
Exactly the play they used last time…
They’re all LIbdems pretending to be Tories and all want immigration, Net Zero and to take their orders from the WEF, UN and WHO
Yep You got it in one
Found religion on the borders did he?
Mr. Jenrick, the former Immigration Minister… emerged as a hardliner on immigration, quitting as Sunak’s Immigration Minister when he saw that the Rwanda plan was destined to fail
Yeah. What half wit thought Rwanda was feasible? Close the god damn border already.
As if this guy will do anything about the open borders he supported, or actually leaving the EU given he voted Remoantard, or Netzero, or the Rona fascism and its death and injury total which he supported, etc etc. Same old, same old.