The Tory leadership battle is ramping up today as Robert Jenrick warns the party must admit ‘where we went wrong’ and cut immigration.
The former minister will bid to kick-start his campaign at a rally, laying out his blueprint for how to recover from the election disaster.
Mr Jenrick is among six candidates trying to succeed Rishi Sunak, with the One Nation and right-wing factions struggling for control.
But the contest is set to be an attritional one, with the winner not due to be announced until November 2 – three days after Labour’s first Budget.
There have already been complaints about ‘dirty tricks’ between rival camps.
Robert Jenrick is among six candidates trying to succeed Rishi Sunak, with the One Nation and right-wing factions struggling for control
Bookmakers have Mr Jenrick as second favourite in the race behind shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch (left). James Cleverly (right) is also a contender
‘We have a mountain to climb.
Shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat is a candidate from the One Nation wing of the party
Former home secretary Priti Patel has also thrown her hat into the ring to lead the Tories
Bookmakers have Mr Jenrick as second favourite in the race behind shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch.
The two rivals from the right of the party are up against shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat, shadow home secretary James Cleverly and former home secretary Dame Priti Patel.
The field will be whittled down to four in time for the Tory conference in Birmingham in the autumn before MPs vote for a final two who will face a ballot of Conservative members.
At his launch in his Newark constituency this afternoon, Mr Jenrick is expected to argue that the Tories can win again in just five years.
‘They say Sir Keir Starmer is guaranteed a decade in Downing Street,’ he will insist.
‘Trust is hard fought, but easily lost. It can’t be restored overnight.
‘But if the party learns the hard lessons, listens to the country and shows the party has changed, if we show the country that we have listened, if we show the country we know where we went wrong and have learned our lessons, if we show that we understand the scale of the challenges this country faces and are capable of delivering for Britain again, if we show that we have come together, a broad church, but united by a common creed, above all, if we show that we have changed, I know we can win again.
‘Not in two terms. Not in a decade. But at the next general election.’
Mr Jenrick will campaign on a tough stance of cutting immigration and pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
In a campaign video this week, he said Mr Sunak’s party had been ‘unable or unwilling’ to do what was required to reduce the number of people coming to the UK.
Hundreds of thousands of people ‘we didn’t need’ had arrived legally while ‘dangerous’ immigrants could not be deported, he said.
Mr Jenrick resigned from Mr Sunak’s government last year, claiming that the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda did not go far enough.
‘I believe that anyone who comes here illegally must be deported within days,’ he said in his pitch to replace Mr Sunak.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride is another hopeful in the contest
The party must respond to the threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK on the Right, as well as winning back former heartlands in southern England which were lost to the Liberal Democrats.
Suella Braverman, who bowed out of the race last week, warned the Tories have ‘no chance of winning the next general election’ as long as Mr Farage’s outfit ‘is a viable alternative’.
The former home secretary denied speculation she might defect unless she was ‘driven out to Reform by my colleagues’.
Arguing that Tory-to-Reform defector Lee Anderson ‘should be a Conservative MP’, Ms Braverman told GB News: ‘We should not be hounding out Conservatives, right-wingers, Eurosceptics, people who want to stand up for our flag and our faith as if they are somehow swivel-eyed loons.’
She cautioned any Tory leader against ‘complacency’ over the threat from the right, saying ‘Reform can do better’ and ‘young people are voting more for Reform than they are for the Conservatives’.
