Tory leadership race – live: Priti Patel ‘to run’ amid calls for Sunak to stay on until November
Ex-deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell urges Tory party to avoid an interim leader, The Times reports
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Priti Patel is reportedly making a bid to become the Conservative Party leader, as the race accelerates to replace Rishi Sunak following his crippling election defeat.
The former home secretary is expected to make a formal announcement later this week, The Telegraph reports. According to the paper, she has already assembled a campaign team funded by “high-profile” Tory donors.
This week former deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell urged the Tory party to avoid an interim leader, saying the best option would be for Rishi Sunak to remain in place until November.
He said the former prime minister’s instinct will almost certainly be to go but that the 1922 Committee meeting showed “widespread feelings of sympathy and respect for Rishi Sunak”.
Another possible Tory leadership race contender on the party’s right is Kemi Badenoch, while James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat and Victoria Atkins are among more moderate figures who could launch bids.
Rishi Sunak hit by mass strike of Tory MPs before surprise snap election
Rishi Sunak was warned he was losing his grip on his own MPs after he was hit by a mass strike in the last days of his premiership.
In a sign of the pressure Mr Sunak was under before he shocked Westminster by calling a snap general election, the then prime minister was told the situation was unsustainable.
On a single day Conservative whips received a request from around 200 Tory MPs – well over half of the parliamentary party - to be slipped, or excused from voting, a former senior Downing Street insider said.
Rishi Sunak hit by mass strike of Tory MPs before surprise snap election
Prime minister was warned that the situation had become unsustainable
Tory grandee urges against lurch to extreme right in leadership battle
The Conservative Party needs to avoid a lurch to the “extreme right” as it tries to rebuild itself from its worst ever defeat, a former party chair has warned.
Chris Patten, who was chair for the successful 1992 general election campaign where he also lost his seat, has raised concerns that the Tories will try to ape Nigel Farage as it seeks to win back supporters.
Writing for The Independent, the Tory grandee, who was also Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, labelled two of the potential contenders Priti Patel and Suella Braverman as “extreme right” and described Farage as “Tommy Robinson in a cravat” as he urged for the party to take time over its reset.
Tory grandee urges against lurch to extreme right in leadership battle
Former Tory chair Chris Patten has warned his party against moving closer to Nigel Farage as the leadership battle to replace Rishi Sunak begins in earnest
Shadow veterans minister says Sunak should remain Tory leader until November
Shadow veterans minister Andrew Bowie has said Rishi Sunak should stay on as Conservative Party leader until November.
Asked if he agreed with shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell that the former prime minister should continue to act as party leader until November, Mr Bowie told Sky News: “I think it’s important that there is some stability at the top of the Conservative Party as we determine how and the length of the leadership election that we’re about to undertake.
“And Rishi gives us that certainty, gives us that continuity, and I hope he finds within himself to carry on whilst we get our house in order and select who is to succeed him and lead us into the next election in four or five years.
He added: “Yes, from my perspective, I think he should stay.”
Asked if the party should move to the right, Mr Bowie said: “Absolutely not, I mean, that’s for the party members to decide who the leader is going to be, but I think that the Conservative Party does better when it commands the centre ground.
“That’s where we have done better traditionally, and that’s where we command most support in the country when we do so. So it’s not for me to determine where the party goes, that’s for Members of Parliament in general, and indeed, the party membership.”
Who will be the next Tory leader? All the front runners ranked, from Priti Patel to Suella Braverman
The Conservatives face a leadership contest after a disastrous election result which saw Labour win by a landslide.
But the party has lost a string of senior names who had been expected to stand – including former cabinet ministers Penny Mordaunt and Grant Shapps.
Here we look at some of the remaining runners and riders:
Who will be the next Tory leader? The Tory frontrunners from Patel to Braverman
After a catastrophic defeat the party is now set for another election - for their new leader
MP lives endangered by a ‘concerted campaign by extremists’, UK political violence advisor warns
The government’s adviser on political violence has called on the home secretary to investigate a “dark underbelly” of abuse and intimidation of candidates during the general election.
John Woodcock, a former Labour MP, who now sits in the House of Lords as Baron Walney, also suggested there could have been a “concerted campaign by extremists”.
He has urged Yvette Cooper to commission an inquiry.
Ex-Labour MP calls for inquiry into abuse and intimidation during election
Government adviser on political violence has called for an inquiry into the ‘dark underbelly’ of election abuse
Top Tory calls for Rishi Sunak to stay as party leader until November as succession battle looms
A senior Tory MP has called for Rishi Sunak to stay as Conservative leader until the end of November as the battle to replace him takes shape.
Shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell said it is important to “run the contest long” to ensure leadership candidates “come under scrutiny both by their colleagues and by the party generally, and by the public”.
And he suggested the leadership election should be launched at the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham at the end of September.
Top Tory calls for Rishi Sunak to stay until November as leadership battle looms
Shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell said it is important to ‘run the leadership contest long’ to ensure leadership candidates ‘come under scrutiny’
James Cleverly seeks to jokingly dispel Westminster rumour – by admitting he is a Warhammer fan
In case you missed it...
James Cleverly has jokingly sought to dispel a rumour he says has been making its way around Westminster for years, by admitting he is fan of the game Warhammer.
The Conservative MP and former foreign secretary posted a selfie on X, formerly Twitter, with a freshly painted Warhammer 40k figurine much to the amusement of many social media users.
“There have been some rumours about me floating around Westminster for some time. There is no point in trying to hide this any longer. It’s true”, the Lewisham-born father-of-two and MP for Braintree in Essex wrote.
Cleverly jokingly dispels Westminster rumour – by admitting he is a Warhammer fan
Warhammer 40K is a game of fantasy battles in which players collect mini-figurines of mythical creatures to act out clashes on a tabletop battlefield
Who will be the next Tory leader? All the front runners ranked, from Priti Patel to Suella Braverman
In case you missed it...
Suella Braverman launched a bizarre attack on her own party’s policies, urging the Conservatives to admit they “shamefully” did not build enough prisons while in office.
As Labour announced a series of measures to ease the overcrowding crisis facing UK jails, the ex-home secretary said the Tories needed to “take responsibility for what we left undone”.
Suella Barverman admits Tories ‘shamefully’ did not build enough prisons
As Labour announced a series of measures to ease the overcrowding crisis facing UK jails, Suella Braverman said the Tories needed to ‘take responsibility’
Why did Rishi Sunak make the fateful decision to call an early election?
One week on, and the sheer scale of it makes the Conservatives’ defeat feel almost preordained. That late in the last parliament, there probably wasn’t much chance that they were ever going to win it, or even secure a hung parliament.
Yet questions persist about the timing, and what made Rishi Sunak choose to go to the country long before what was the widely expected prospective date in the autumn.
Sean O’Grady reports:
Why did Rishi Sunak decide to call an election so early?
In the aftermath of the worst defeat the Tories have ever seen, Sean O’Grady uncovers the thinking behind the decision, and considers the way things might have gone if the prime minister had waited a few more months
Tories received £50,000 donation from business linked to convicted billionaire
The Conservatives received £50,000 in the dying days of the election campaign from a company linked to a billionaire who has been jailed for exploiting his domestic staff, Electoral Commission figures show.
Figures published on Monday show Westminster Development Services, a consortium responsible for redeveloping the Old War Office on Whitehall into a Raffles hotel, made the donation to the Tories on July 1.
According to Companies House, Westminster Development Services is up to 50% owned by AMC Project Services, which itself lists Prakash Hinduja, the chairman of the Hinduja Group and one of Britain’s richest men, as its owner.
Some 10 days earlier, on June 21, Hinduja and three members of his family had been jailed by a Swiss court after being convicted of exploiting domestic workers at their mansion in Geneva.
Hinduja and his wife Kamal received sentences of four years and six months, while their son Ajay and his wife Namrata were jailed for four years.
The court said the four were guilty of exploiting workers and providing unauthorised employment, but dismissed more serious charges of human trafficking. The Hindujas’ lawyers said the defendants planned to appeal against the decision.
The Conservative Party has been approached for comment.
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