Two right-wing former ministers left in race to be UK Conservative leader

Conservative Party leadership candidates Kemi Badenoch, left, Robert Jenrick, center, and James Cleverly at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, England, Oct. 2, 2024. (AFP)

• Party members will choose between former business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick
• James Cleverly, who won the third round of voting, was eliminated from the race with 37 votes

LONDON: Two right-wing former ministers will go head-to-head to win votes from members of the Conservative Party and become its next leader after making it through to the final round of a contest set to shape the future of Britain’s once dominant party.
Wednesday’s vote by Conservative lawmakers was the penultimate step in a race that has been marked by the kind of in-fighting that some Conservatives blame for their party’s defeat in July’s national election.
Party members nationwide will now choose between former business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick. The victor will be announced on Nov. 2.
Badenoch came first in the race among Conservative lawmakers with 42 out of 120 votes, with Jenrick coming a close second on 41 votes. In a surprise twist, Cleverly, who won the third round of voting, was eliminated from the race with 37 votes.
Whoever becomes leader will be charged with turning around the fortunes of a party that had governed Britain, alone or in coalition, since 2010 but which suffered its worst defeat in the July election, when Labour won a landslide victory.
But the Conservatives are more hopeful of returning to power in five years’ time rather than the once expected 10 after Prime Minister Keir Starmer suffered a bumpy start in government, coming under fire over welfare cuts and donations for clothes.
According to the Conservative Home website, Badenoch is the most popular contender among the party’s membership, although former foreign minister Cleverly was boosted after the annual conference, when he made a well-received speech.
“I’m grateful for the support I’ve received on this campaign,” Cleverly said. “Sadly it wasn’t to be.”
One Conservative lawmaker said Cleverly’s unexpected exit was evidence of “dark arts,” suggesting one of the candidates must have asked supporters to back Cleverly in Tuesday’s round of voting to make him appear temporarily stronger.
The final two candidates both say they will reunite a party that became mired in chaos, scandal and deep divisions over Brexit during its last eight years in government, and they pledge to return to its conservative roots to offer an alternative to Labour at the next national election, which must take place by mid-2029.
But they differ over tackling immigration, with Jenrick wanting to leave the European Convention of Human Rights, a treaty agreed by almost every European nation, while Badenoch says immigration can be tackled without doing so.