Tory leadership live: Kemi Badenoch admits Conservatives ‘let standards slip’ but vows to rebuild party
Four-month-long race to replace Rishi Sunak reaches finish line with Ms Badenoch announced as winner this morning
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Your support makes all the difference.Newly elected Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has admitted the Tories “let standards slip” but vowed to rebuild the party.
In a resounding victory after being the overwhelming odds on favourite to win the Conservative leadership contest, the right-wing culture warrior bagged 53,806 votes over Robert Jenrick's 41,000, out of a total electorate of 131,680.
The four-month-long race to replace Rishi Sunak reached the finish line on Saturday, with the result of the leadership ballot announced in the morning after the members’ ballot closed on Thursday.
Mr Sunak and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer were among those offering Ms Badenoch their congratulations.
Ms Badenoch will be at the helm as the Tories look to recover from the July election result, which saw them return just 121 MPs, having lost lost seats to Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.
Immigration, the economy, and how the Tories can rebuild trust with the electorate and win back the voters they lost have all been discussed at length through the campaign.
Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly also put their names forward in the nominations at the end of July and spent the summer campaigning before they were each knocked out of the contest.
Badenoch’s election ‘threatens to drag politics further to right’, says cross-party campaign group
Kemi Badenoch’s election as Tory leader “threatens to drag politics further to the right”, a cross-party campaign group has said.
Responding to the Tory leadership election results, Neal Lawson, Director of cross-party campaign group Compass, said: "The election of Kemi Badenoch as Tory Party leader is yet another example of how First Past the Post distorts our politics and drives it to the right. The Tories aren’t speaking to the country – they’re speaking to the relatively small pool of swing voters who jumped ship for Reform.
"As ever, we’re left with a huge gulf between what the wider public really wants and the politics we actually get.
"Some in Labour will welcome Badenoch’s election – the more the Tories head to the right the more space it leaves them. But all the evidence is that Reform drags the Tories to the right and then Labour moves into that territory. Badenoch's election could continue that right wing trend."
Labour congratulates Badenoch but argues her election shows Tories ‘incapable of change’
The Labour Party has congratulated Kemi Badenoch for being elected leader of the Conservative Party but argued her win shows the Tories are “incapable of change”.
Ellie Reeves MP, Chair of the Labour Party, said: “Congratulations to Kemi Badenoch on being elected Leader of the Conservative Party.
“It’s been a long leadership election but sadly one thing is clear – the Conservatives have learned nothing since the British people resoundingly rejected them in July. It’s been a summer of yet more Conservative chaos and division. They could have spent the past four months listening to the public, taking responsibility for the mess they made and changing their party. Instead, Kemi Badenoch’s election as leader shows they’re incapable of change.
“Meanwhile, the Labour government is getting on with fixing the foundations of our economy and cleaning up the mess the Tories left behind.”
Watch: Moment Kemi Badenoch is announced as new Tory leader to replace Rishi Sunak
Boris Johnson congratulates Badenoch who ‘brings much needed zing and zap’ to Tories
Boris Johnson has congratulated Kemi Badenoch on her “outstanding” victory in the Conservative Party as he said she “brings a much needed zing and zap” to the Tories while he slammed the “sleaze-ridden” Labour government.
In a post on X following the announcement of the results, he said: “Congratulations to Kemi on her outstanding victory.
“She brings a much needed zing and zap to the Conservative Party.
“This sleaze-ridden Labour government has no ideas or agenda beyond the old tax and spend socialism.
“They are far more vulnerable than the parliamentary maths might suggest.
“Kemi has exactly the right courage and clarity to expose Starmer’s failings.
“She is now ideally placed to flip them over and take the Tories to victory at the next election.
“I will be giving her my full support and call on all Conservatives to do the same.”
Analysis: The Conservatives have rejected Trumpism and a path of aping Farage
While this Tory leadership election was portrayed as two rightwingers, party members had a very clear choice, writes political editor David Maddox.
Kemi Badenoch represented a considered open approach to leadership while her opponent Robert Jenrick offered Trump style politics and a path towards becoming Nigel Farage and Reform UK light.
In making a clear choice the Tories have said they want to hang on to the centre ground and not lurch enormously to the right.
While Mr Jenrick wanted to ditch the European Convention of Human Rights and went jogging in provocative T-shirts on the Israel/ Hamas war, Ms Badenoch has always insisted on a more considered approach.
In the end the backing of Damian Green and his One Nation group supporters from the left of the party were probably crucial in Ms Badenoch’s victory.
Now with the choice made, she has the much tougher task of taking that approach to politics in a way which rebuilds the Tories as an electoral force from ruin.
Reform UK were straight on the attack against Kemi Badenoch
Nigel Farage's Reform UK wasted no time going on the attack against Kemi Badenoch, sending journalists a briefing on her "record of failure".
The dossier included claims the former business secretary "abandoned the sunset clause with the Retained EU Law Bill", allowing European laws to remain in place in the UK after Brexit.
It also attacked her for committing Britain to staying in the European Convention on Human Rights, supporting net zero legislation and supporting measures to allow more immigration into the UK.
Deputy Reform leader Richard Tice said: "Kemi Badenoch is another in a long line of Tory politicians who say one thing and do another.
“Kemi Badenoch was front and centre of a Government that failed Britain. She said nothing while Rishi Sunak hit hard working people with record immigration, the small boats crisis, the highest taxes for seventy years, record NHS waiting lists and sky high crime.
“Instead of standing up for Britain whilst in Government, she stood up for her own career prospects and chauffeur driven cars.
“She has failed the British public before and she will fail them again as leader of the Conservative Party.”
Turnout in Tory leadership election was 72.8 per cent
Turnout in the Conservative leadership election was more than 72 per cent.
Kemi Badenoch received 53,806 votes, while Robert Jenrick received 41,388 votes.
Some 66,288 electors voted online and 29,621 electors voted by post, while 655 ballots were rejected.
There were 131,680 eligible electors overall.
'Enormous honour' to be Tory leader, Badenoch says
Kemi Badenoch has said it is an "enormous honour" to be elected Conservative Party leader.
She has thanked her husband Hamish, saying she would not have been able to win the long-running campaign without him. And Ms Badenoch thanked Rishi Sunak for his stewardship of the Tories since its crushing election defeat in July.
She went on to thank rival Robert Jenrick, joking that "you and I don't actually disagree on very much".
And she went on to set out the "tough" task facing the Tories, promising to "hold this Labour government to account".
Badenoch wins big
In a resounding victory, Kemi Badenoch has become the leader of the Conservative Party.
The right-wing culture warrior won with 53,806 votes over Robert Jenrick's 41,000, out of a total electorate of 131,680.
She will now address Tory MPs, members, the media and the public in her first speech as Tory leader.
Kemi Badenoch announced as new leader of Conservative Party
Kemi Badenoch has been announced as the new leader of the Conservative Party.
The chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs, Bob Blackman, revealed the result this morning.
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