Priti Patel has entered the race to be Tory leader, saying her party should put ‘unity before personal vendetta’.
Standing on a platform of ‘unite to win’, the former Home Secretary urged colleagues not to descend into ‘a soap opera of finger-pointing and self-indulgence’ in the wake of the landslide General Election defeat.
Sources close to Dame Priti said her remarks were not aimed at any potential rivals, including Kemi Badenoch and Suella Braverman, who had a war of words this month.
But Dame Priti, who served in Boris Johnson‘s Cabinet but not since under either Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak, also made clear that she believed it wasn’t Conservative values that led to election defeat, instead politicians who ‘fell out and left us short’.
She becomes the fifth MP to throw their hat in the ring, after James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride. Ms Badenoch is expected to declare her candidature before Monday’s deadline.
Priti Patel has entered the race to be Tory leader, saying her party should put ‘unity before personal vendetta’
Her announcement came the same day James Cleverly – the first to announce he was running this week – pledged to increase defense spending by three per cent
Robert Jenrick (seen), Tom Tugendhat and Mel Stride have also declared, while Kemi Badenoch is expected to join them before Monday’s deadline
Dame Priti, 52, put her experience of over 30 years in the Party at the heart of her leadership bid, pointing out that she worked for William Hague after the Tories’ previous historic defeat in 1997.
She also made a clear pitch to rank-and-file Party members who will make the final choice on the new leader, vowing to give them a greater say in policy making and giving them a role in elected the Party chairman.
Currently, the key post is named by the Party leader.
And one week after fellow ex-Home Secretary Ms Braverman warned against the Tories becoming ‘centrist cranks’ after election defeat, she urged colleagues not to become obsessed over whether the Party should veer ‘Left’ or ‘Right’
Dame Priti, Home Secretary through Mr Johnson’s premiership, said last night: ‘It isn’t our heroic members who failed, but politicians’ distraction from public service.
‘We must now turn our conservative values into strong policies to bring about positive change for people across our country.
‘It is time to put unity before personal vendetta, country before party, and delivery before self-interest.
‘I have done this throughout my 30 plus years of service to our Party, in both Government and Opposition.
‘I can get us match fit to win the next general election.’
Dame Priti’s intervention came as Mr Cleverly sought to underline his leadership credentials by pledging to increase defence ‘in an increasingly dangerous and contested world’ by three per cent – not just the 2.5 per cent pledged by the last Tory government.
Mr Cleverly, who was both Foreign and Home Secretary during Mr Sunak’s premiership, also said the UK should now agree to Ukraine’s request to use British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles against legitimate targets will inside Russia.
Kyiv is currently restricted to deploying the so-called ‘bunker buster’ against enemy targets inside Ukraine or just across the Russian border.
But Mr Cleverly told the Mail on Sunday: ‘Putin has consistently hit civilian targets and infrastructure inside Ukraine but President Zelensky cannot fight back with one arm tied behind his back.
‘Ukraine must be able to stop attacks coming from outside its borders to murder civilians inside its borders if it is ever to win this war.’
Earlier this month, it emerged that at a private Shadow Cabinet meeting, Ms Badenoch had criticised Ms Braverman for publicly attacking the Party during the election and said that she was having a ‘very public’ nervous breakdown
A final two candidates will be put to a vote of party members with the winner taking over from Rishi Sunak on November 2
Earlier this month, it emerged that at a private Shadow Cabinet meeting, Ms Badenoch had criticised Ms Braverman for publicly attacking the Party during the election and said that she was having a ‘very public’ nervous breakdown.
Ms Braverman hit back, saying: ‘Kemi, and the rest of the Cabinet, should not have nodded along, as they and Rishi took the party to disaster.’
After the final list of candidates is confirmed, Tory MPs are expected to whittle the field to four candidates next week, with the Conservative conference in September to be used as a ‘beauty parade’.
A final two candidates will be put to a vote of party members with the winner taking over from Rishi Sunak on November 2.
