Kemi Badenoch launches Tory leadership bid as nominations set to close

Ms Badenoch and James Cleverly are among the six Tories who have put themselves forward in the race to replace Rishi Sunak.

Kemi Badenoch is hoping to become Tory leader (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

Kemi Badenoch has thrown her hat in the ring and Suella Braverman has bowed out as nominations are set to close in the Conservative Party leadership race.

Ms Badenoch, an early favourite with bookmakers, joins Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick to compete for the top job.

Under rules drawn up by the 1922 Committee of Tory MPs and the party board, nominations close at 2.30pm on Monday.

Writing in The Times, Ms Badenoch said an “incoherent” set of policies were to blame for the party suffering its worst general election result.

The shadow housing secretary accused successive Conservative prime ministers of allowing Britain to become “increasingly liberal” and tolerating “nasty identity politics”.

“We talked right yet governed left,” she said.

She said “renewal” was the first task for a new party leader and that she would aim to rebuild the party by 2030.

While Mr Cleverly urged an end to Tory infighting and Dame Priti called for the party to “unite” in their leadership pitches, Ms Badenoch said there was a “bigger question of what it means to be a Conservative today”.

She wrote: “If there wasn’t, the Reform party would not exist. It is not enough to call for ‘unity to win’. We need to ask ourselves, ‘What are we uniting around? What are we winning for?’”

Ms Braverman meanwhile said she had gathered enough support to compete in the race to replace Rishi Sunak but had decided to “bow out” after being branded “branded mad, bad and dangerous”.

She wrote in The Telegraph that there was no point in “running to lead the Tory Party when most of the MPs disagree with my diagnosis and prescription”.

Contenders need a proposer, seconder and eight other backers to stand.

The parliamentary party will narrow the field down to four, who will make their case at the Conservative Party conference, which runs from September 29 to October 2.

The final two, picked by the parliamentary party, will then go to a vote of party members in an online ballot that will close on October 31 with the result announced on November 2.