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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