LONDON: Six Conservative MPs, including PIO former home secretary Priti Patel, have thrown their hats in the ring to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader. The deadline for applying to be on the ballot was 2.30 pm Monday.
Candidates needed a proposer, a seconder and eight nominations from Tory MPs to proceed to the ballot.
There are four men and two women standing and three are ethnic minorities.The centrists standing are shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat (who was seconded by one of the two new Tory PIO MPs, Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst), shadow home secretary James Cleverly (whose mother is from Sierra Leone, who was proposed by PIO MP Gagan Mohindra), and Mel Stride; from the right of the party are Priti Patel (of Gujarati Ugandan descent), Kemi Badenoch (of Nigerian descent) and former immigration secretary Robert Jenrick.
PIO Suella Braverman, who was widely expected to stand, pulled out at the last minute despite having the required number of backers, saying other MPs will not implement her solutions to UK problems such as leaving the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Announcing her withdrawal in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman said she had been vilified by colleagues for saying the truth. “There is no point in someone like me running to lead the Tory Party when most of the MPs disagree with my diagnosis and prescription. When I said multiculturalism wasn’t working, I meant it. When I argued that we needed to leave the ECHR to stop the boats, it’s because it was true,” she wrote.
In Sept the parliamentary party will narrow the six candidates down to four candidates via hustings and ballots, who will make their case to party members at the Conservative Party Conference at the end of Sept in Birmingham.
There will be further parliamentary hustings and ballots and then the final two candidates will be put to party members to vote on in an online ballot. The result will be announced on Nov 2.
Sunak will remain party acting leader until then.
To prevent blue-on-blue attacks candidates who indulge in personal attacks against their rivals during the contest will be given a “yellow card”, Bob Blackman, chairman of the 1922 Committee (a body of all Conservative backbench MPs) who is acting as returning officer for the election, said.
Candidates needed a proposer, a seconder and eight nominations from Tory MPs to proceed to the ballot.
There are four men and two women standing and three are ethnic minorities.The centrists standing are shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat (who was seconded by one of the two new Tory PIO MPs, Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst), shadow home secretary James Cleverly (whose mother is from Sierra Leone, who was proposed by PIO MP Gagan Mohindra), and Mel Stride; from the right of the party are Priti Patel (of Gujarati Ugandan descent), Kemi Badenoch (of Nigerian descent) and former immigration secretary Robert Jenrick.
PIO Suella Braverman, who was widely expected to stand, pulled out at the last minute despite having the required number of backers, saying other MPs will not implement her solutions to UK problems such as leaving the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
Announcing her withdrawal in the Daily Telegraph, Braverman said she had been vilified by colleagues for saying the truth. “There is no point in someone like me running to lead the Tory Party when most of the MPs disagree with my diagnosis and prescription. When I said multiculturalism wasn’t working, I meant it. When I argued that we needed to leave the ECHR to stop the boats, it’s because it was true,” she wrote.
In Sept the parliamentary party will narrow the six candidates down to four candidates via hustings and ballots, who will make their case to party members at the Conservative Party Conference at the end of Sept in Birmingham.
There will be further parliamentary hustings and ballots and then the final two candidates will be put to party members to vote on in an online ballot. The result will be announced on Nov 2.
Sunak will remain party acting leader until then.
To prevent blue-on-blue attacks candidates who indulge in personal attacks against their rivals during the contest will be given a “yellow card”, Bob Blackman, chairman of the 1922 Committee (a body of all Conservative backbench MPs) who is acting as returning officer for the election, said.