Badenoch Announces Tory Leadership Bid as Braverman Pulls Out

Kemi Badenoch, minister for women and equalities, arrives to attend the weekly meeting of Cabinet ministers in 10 Downing Street in London on March 26, 2024. Carl Court/Getty Images

Shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch launched her bid for the Tory leadership on Monday, while former Home Secretary Suella Braverman revealed she had chosen not to run.

Ms. Badenoch joins Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, and Tom Tugendhat in the race to replace Rishi Sunak, with nominations for the position due to close at 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

In a piece in The Times of London, Ms. Badenoch said the Tories deserved to lose the last election because the party was “unsure of who we were, what we were for and how we could build a new country.”

The former business secretary wrote: “The country will not vote for us if we don’t know who we are or what we want to be. That is why I am seeking the leadership of the Conservative Party to renew our movement and, with the support of the British people, to get it to work for our country again.”

Ms. Badenoch came to public attention during her stint in Cabinet as a critical voice on gender issues, including calling for a change to the Equality Act to define sex biologically.

She has also rejected calls for Reform UK and its leader Nigel Farage to be welcomed into the Conservative Party.

Braverman Bows Out

Ms. Braverman, meanwhile, said she had gathered enough support to compete in the race to replace Mr. Sunak but had decided not to run.

Posting on social media platform X, she said: “With thanks to the 1000s of members, ex-Tory voters & MPs who supported me, I will not run for the leadership of the Conservative Party. I wish all the Candidates the best & will support the new leader from the Back Benches for a Conservative revival.”

Writing in The Telegraph, Ms. Braverman said there was “still no consensus” on what led the Conservative Party to its worst general election defeat, and that she had been “vilified” by colleagues for outlining her view that it was down to raising taxes while pledging the opposite, failing to cut immigration, and overreacting to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The former home secretary also focused blame on failing to “tackle the long tail of Blairism” in the Human Rights Act, Equality Act, and European Convention on Human Rights, and for being in government as “transgender ideology and critical race theory seeped into our institutions.”

She added that the party must also confront the “existential threat” posed by Reform UK, but that she could not run for Tory leadership “because I cannot say what people want to hear.”

“I’ve been branded mad, bad and dangerous enough to see that the Tory Party does not want to hear this. And so I will bow out here,” she wrote.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman delivers a keynote address on global migration challenges at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C., during her three-day visit to the United States on Sept. 26, 2023. Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Dame Priti became the fifth Tory to declare her candidacy over the weekend, posting on X: “I am standing to be the new Leader of the Conservative Party. We must unite to win!

“I can lead us in opposition and unite our party and get us match fit for the next election, with unity, experience and strength.”

She said she could deliver the “experienced and strong” leadership needed to unite the Tories’ disparate factions, in The Telegraph on Saturday.

Deadline Day

Nominations close at 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

Contenders need a proposer, seconder, and eight other backers to stand.

The parliamentary party will narrow the field to four, who will make their case at the Conservative Party conference, which runs from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 in Birmingham.

The final two, chosen by the parliamentary party, will then be put to party members in an online ballot that will close on Halloween with the result announced on Nov. 2.

Mr. Sunak will remain in post until his successor has been chosen.

PA Media contributed to this report.