The race to become the next leader of the UK's Conservative Party has been whittled down to the last two candidates after a series of votes by party MPs reduced the field from six.
Apparent frontrunner James Cleverly was knocked out of the contest to replace Rishi Sunak as leader on Wednesday – a mere 24 hours after coming first in the previous round of voting.
The result means Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick – both from the right wing of the party – are left, the winner to be picked after a vote among party members.
On Wednesday Ms Badenoch won 42 votes, Mr Jenrick 41 and Mr Cleverly 37.
Robert Jenrick
The former immigration minister won the most support in the first two rounds of voting and has been second in the later rounds. He and Kemi Badenoch are from the party's right.
He is campaigning on introducing legislation to cap legal immigration. He also wants to pull out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mr Jenrick told the Conservative Friends of Israel that he would move Britain’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “I stood in this very hall a few years ago and I said it then, as I say it now tonight, and if the Foreign Office or the civil servants don’t want to do it, I will build it myself.”
Nicknamed “Robert Generic” when first elected to the Commons in 2014, he has gradually moved farther to the right. The MP for Newark resigned as a minister in December, claiming the then-draft legislation designed to revive the Rwanda deportation policy did “not go far enough”.
Kemi Badenoch
Ms Badenoch attracted a huge amount of attention after questioning whether maternity pay needs to be looked at as part of cutting excessive red tape. She later denied wanting to cut the benefit.
She said: “Maternity pay varies, depending on who you work for – but statutory maternity pay is a function of tax, tax comes from people who are working. We’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.”
The shadow housing secretary said her rivals, in particular Mr Jenrick, were distorting her words. “It shows that he’s not actually reading or listening to what I’m saying,” she said.
At another appearance she said maternity leave was badly structured for the national interest. “I think that there are things that we have to do to make sure that we make life comfortable for those people who are … starting families,” she said. “A lot of people have fewer children because they start having children later.”
She told the main stage meeting at this year's party conference in Birmingham that she was offering confident Conservatism. “I’m somebody who gets ‘cut through’,” she said. “I’m somebody who communicates our values and I always start from first principles. I can do it and that’s why I want to be Tory leader.”
Not afraid to be controversial, Ms Badenoch told a conference meeting of the Conservative Friends of Israel that a group of independent MPs who stood on pro-Palestine tickets are a “new threat”. She added: "We must not pretend that these people are a minority. We have to fight this ideology that has no business in our country.”
She became an MP in 2017 and, as minister for women and equalities, called for a change to the Equality Act so that gender is defined only as someone’s biological sex.
She said “renewal” was the first task for a new party leader and she aimed to rebuild the Tories by 2030 and respond to Reform UK’s threat from the right. The former business and trade secretary also made a leadership attempt in 2022 after Boris Johnson’s resignation, coming fourth.
The North-west Essex MP was born in Wimbledon, south-west London, but grew up in Nigeria and the US, returning to the UK at the age of 16. She has a master's degree in engineering as well as being a Bachelor of Law, and has worked at private bank Coutts and The Spectator magazine.
14 years of Conservative Party rule – in pictures
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David Cameron, the new Prime Minister, and his wife Samantha enter No 10 Downing Street after his meeting with Queen Elizabeth II in May 2010. All photos: Getty Images unless otherwise stated -
Theresa May speaks outside No 10 in July 2016 after assuming office as Prime Minister -
New PM Boris Johnson is welcomed by staff at Downing Street on July 24, 2019 -
Liz Truss poses with her husband Hugh O'Leary at Downing Street on September 6, 2022 after becoming Prime Minister -
Rishi Sunak speaks at Downing after taking office on October 25, 2022 -
Mr Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats hold their first joint press conference in the Downing Street garden in May 2010. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agreed to lead the country in a coalition government -
Barack Obama and Mr Cameron play table tennis at the Globe Academy in south London during the US President's state visit to Britain in May 2011 -
Mr Cameron talks to British soldiers during a visit to the Camp Price forward operating base in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, in December 2012 -
Mr Cameron attends a meeting of G7 leaders in March 2014 in The Hague, Netherlands -
Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and Mr Cameron speak to the media during the London Conference on Afghanistan in December 2014 -
Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha are applauded by staff upon entering 10 Downing Street as he begins his second term as Prime Minister in May 2015 -
Mr Cameron travels on his campaign bus on the final day of campaigning in June 2016 as the country prepares to go to the polls to decide whether Britain should remain or leave the European Union -
Mr Cameron resigns on the steps of 10 Downing Street on June 24, 2016, after the UK voted to leave the European Union in the national referendum -
Queen Elizabeth welcomes Ms May to an audience where she invited the former home secretary to become Prime Minister and form a new government in July 2016 -
Ms May signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU, in March 2017 -
Ms May delivers a speech during an election campaign visit to Stoke-on-Trent in June 2017, before Britain went to the polls to vote in a general election -
Ms May delivers a statement at Downing Street in November 2018, after the cabinet approved the wording of the draft Brexit agreement for UK withdrawal from the European Union on March 29, 2019 -
Ms May announces that she will resign as Prime Minister on June 7, 2019 -
Mr Johnson waves from the door of 10 Downing Street on July 24, 2019 -
Mr Johnson poses for a photo wearing boxing gloves emblazoned with 'Get Brexit Done' during a stop in his general election campaign trail in November 2019 -
Pro Brexit supporters celebrate at Parliament Square as the United Kingdom exits the EU on January 31, 2020 -
Mr Johnson speaks during a news conference on the Covid-19 pandemic in December 2020 -
Chief Advisor to Mr Johnson, Dominic Cummings, makes a statement at 10 Downing Street in May 2020 after travelling to Durham during the coronavirus lockdown -
A handout photo released as the Sue Gray Report into lockdown parties in Downing Street was published, shows Mr Johnson at a gathering there in November 2020 -
Mr Johnson poses in a group photo during the G7 Summit in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, in June 2021 -
British armed forces work with the US military to evacuate eligible civilians and their families out of Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021, after the Taliban took control of the country -
Russian military vehicles crossing a Crimea border checkpoint into Ukraine in February 2022 as the Russian invasion of Ukraine begins. AFP -
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Mr Johnson look at a plaque dedicated to Johnson in Kyiv in August 2022 -
A man stands on the steps of the grounded Rwanda deportation flight EC-LZO Boeing 767 at Boscombe Down Air Base, in June 2022. The flight taking asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda was grounded at the last minute after the intervention of the European Court of Human Rights -
Mr Johnson addresses the nation as he announces his resignation outside 10 Downing Street in July 2022 -
Mr Sunak and Ms Truss take part in a leadership debate in Stoke-on-Trent in July 2022 -
Queen Elizabeth greets the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party Ms Truss at Balmoral Castle for an audience where she was invited to become Prime Minister in September 2022 -
Ms Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng visit Northfleet in September 2022, as the Chancellor released his 'mini-budget' that included tax cuts and sent sterling to a 37-year low -
Ms Truss delivers her resignation speech at Downing Street in October 2022, after just 44 days in office -
New Conservative Party leader and incoming Prime Minister Mr Sunak is greeted by colleagues at party headquarters in London in October 2022 -
Mr Sunak on board Border Agency cutter HMC Seeker during a visit to Dover in June 2023, as he gave an update six months after he introduced the Illegal Migration Bill under his plans to "stop the boats" crossing the English Channel -
Mr Sunak makes a statement in the pouring rain, as he called a general election, in May this year
Out of the race
James Cleverly
Shadow home secretary James Cleverly was the first Tory to declare his ambition to succeed Mr Sunak.
He believes in supporting Israel against Hamas and while foreign secretary he led British support for Ukraine. He said he could “unite the Conservative Party and overturn [Keir] Starmer’s loveless landslide” election win.
The party needs to expand its base of support and shake off the impression that it is more focused on infighting than serving the public, he said. “I have been a team player, which has meant I have had to promote other people’s ideas. I have not spent that time promoting my own ideas.”
Mr Cleverly, a centrist in Conservative politics, took an apparent swipe at the right wing of his party when he warned against “sacrificing pragmatic government in the national interest on the altar of ideological purity”.
In a social media video, he highlighted his credentials as having been home and foreign secretary, as well as serving as party chairman when the Tories won the election in 2019.
Mr Cleverly was first elected as the Conservative MP for Braintree in May 2015. After injury cut short his army career, he graduated with a business degree and joined the Territorial Army. He worked in magazine and digital publishing before setting up his own business. He was a London Assembly member before he became an MP.
Tom Tugendhat
The shadow security minister had battled James Cleverly to become the main centrist candidate.
Mr Tugendhat wants to cap annual immigration at 100,000 and has said he would see “the blood of the economy flowing again” through tax cuts. “We don’t do it because we worship high or low taxes. It’s because we believe in freedom,” he told the main hall in his audition to the faithful. “The reason we think taxes should be lower is because we think individuals are better when they are freer, when they’re able to make the decisions over their own lives, and when they’re able to put their effort and their energy into the projects, and the ideas that they think will work.”
The Tonbridge MP indicated he would be prepared to leave the ECHR if it was necessary to secure the UK’s borders. He denied the party would be split by the contest because on key issues, including the ECHR, gender, tax, net zero and defence, all Tories shared the same “common-sense” views.
He also ran unsuccessfully in 2022, when he pitched himself as the candidate untarnished by the scandals that had dogged Mr Johnson and his government. Having entered Parliament in 2015, Mr Tugendhat chaired the Foreign Affairs Committee for five years and previously served in the military.
Priti Patel
Ms Patel is a long-standing Eurosceptic who has said she was inspired to join the Conservative Party by Margaret Thatcher. She became an MP in 2010 and served in cabinet positions under Theresa May and Mr Johnson, as international development secretary and home secretary, respectively.
Ms Patel was a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign, and as home secretary launched a points-based immigration system, signed the agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers to the country, and sealed returns deals with Albania and Serbia. She resigned as home secretary after Liz Truss became Tory leader.
Mel Stride
Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride is one of Mr Sunak’s closest allies and his frequent media appearances made him the face of the Tory campaign in the run-up to the election disaster. The MP for Central Devon said he believed he was the right person to “unite the party”.
“We’ve substantially lost the trust of the British people and we’ve lost our reputation for competence, and I believe that I’m in a very good position to address those issues going forward,” he said.
Conservative Party big hitters who lost their seats – in pictures
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Liz Truss, who served as prime minister for 44 days in 2022 before she was removed, has now lost her seat in parliament. PA -
Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg has also been defeated. Getty Images -
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer also lost her seat. PA -
Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer. AFP -
Defence Secretary Grant Shapps. AFP -
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan. Reuters -
Penny Mordaunt delivers a speech after the declaration in Portsmouth. Getty Images -
Justice Secretary Alex Chalk. PA -
Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology Michelle Donelan. Getty Images -
Chief Whip Simon Hart. Getty Images
When will there be a winner?
The winner will be announced on November 2 after a vote of party members. Once only two candidates remain, after a last vote of MPs on October 9 the party membership will cast their votes on October 31.
