Tugendhat Knocked out of Conservative Party Leadership Race

Conservative Party leadership candidate Tom Tugendhat delivering a speech during the Conservative Party Conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 2, 2024. Jacob King/PA Wire

Tom Tugendhat has been knocked out of the Conservative Party leadership race, which now has just three candidates left.

The results of the latest voting round left Tugendhat with 20 votes from his parliamentary colleagues in the ballot on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, James Cleverly has overtaken Robert Jenrick, putting him in the lead with 39 votes. Jenrick fell to second place with 31 votes, just ahead of Kemi Badenoch, who came in third with 30.

In a post on social media platform X, Tugendhat thanked those who backed his campaign, saying: “Your energy, your ideas and your support have shown a vision of what our party could become. Our campaign has ended but our commitment to our country continues.”

Another vote by the parliamentary party will take place on Wednesday, before party members make their choice between the remaining two. The online ballot opens on Oct. 10 and closes on the 31, and the winner will be announced on Nov. 2.

Cleverly in the Lead

Cleverly said he was “pleased to be through to the next round,” writing on X: “The job’s not finished. I’m excited to keep spreading our positive Conservative message.”

The former home secretary had surged ahead in the latest rounds of votes, leapfrogging former frontrunner Jenrick by eight votes, after he had called on party members to be more positive and “sell Conservatism with a smile” at last week’s party conference.

The former home secretary had said as leader and next prime minister, he would get rid of “bad taxes,” like stamp duty, and make sure that the state never takes more than half of any pound a person earns.

Cleverly also signalled that he wanted to take the party towards a more small government, free-market, direction, calling for the cutting of red tape to build more infrastructure for the country.

Jenrick

Jenrick, the former frontrunner, saw his support fall by two since the last vote.

The former immigration minister has made leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights as a focus of his campaign, saying during a speech given to conference last week that these institutions “are creating an arsenal of laws by which illegal entrants frustrate their removal.”

Jenrick had set out his vision for a “new” Conservative Party which could beat Labour at the polls in five years’ time, referring to how the Tories reinvented themselves in the 1970s and, under Margaret Thatcher, ousted the Labour government in the 1979 election.

He had also promised to get Britain building homes and infrastructure again, opposed extreme net zero policies, backed cutting the foreign aid budget and putting that money into defence, and called for “building a small state that actually works—not a big state that fails.”

Badenoch Backs a Reboot

Support for Badenoch increased by two since the last vote.

The former business and trade secretary called for a “reboot” of the British state, reconsidering every aspect of it, including the nation’s international agreements, the Human Rights Act, the Equality Act, and the Civil Service.

Badenoch said at conference last week the reboot was needed because the government relied on economic models that did not work. She added that ministerial decisions have become unenforceable, because they are being “endlessly challenged in the courts,” citing instances where foreign child abusers could not be deported because of human rights laws.

She also warned against the resurgence of socialist ideas and identity politics, adding that people had become afraid to defend their beliefs, and it was up to the Conservative Party “to defend them, champion them, and give them a party they can be proud of.”

PA Media contributed to this report.