Hold onto your hats – the race to find a new leader for the Conservatives is approaching the final stretch, with the final four reduced to two this week.
But don’t hold onto them too tight. There’s still almost a month to go until Rishi Sunak’s successor is finally announced on November 2, four months after he stepped down.
Six people initially put their name forward: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride and Dame Priti Patel.
But after two rounds of ballots from the party’s 121 MPs, only Badenoch, Cleverly, Tugendhat and Jenrick remain.
The contest so far has been marked by a bit of infighting and very little attention from the general public, before members choose the future direction of the party.
This time, the leadership candidates are vying to become Leader of the Opposition rather than Prime Minister. At least for the time being.
Who is running to be Tory leader?
Here’s what you should know about the MPs who are confirmed to stand in the Conservative leadership race.
James Cleverly
James Cleverly, one of the most high-profile Conservative MPs in the House of Commons, was the first to enter the leadership race with a post on social media.
At his campaign launch event, he argued the party needs ‘a leader who can unite the party, and I am the best placed to do that’.
Cleverly was party chairman then Education Secretary under Boris Johnson before Liz Truss made him the first Black Foreign Secretary in UK history.
He stayed in that position when Rishi Sunak took over, until Suella Braverman was sacked as Home Secretary following the publication of a Times op-ed in the Times in which she criticised the Met.
It was Cleverly who was appointed to replace her, making him the final figurehead for the government’s Rwanda deportation scheme – which he reportedly once described as ‘bats**t’.
But he’s faced controversy in the past for making a joke about date rape, which he said undermined the government’s work to tackle drink spiking.
He’s come in third in both of the voting rounds so far, but there’s a chance he’ll make it to the final two after a strong performance at the Tory party conference.
Tom Tugendhat
Tom Tugendhat was the second candidate to put himself forward, moments after nominations opened.
A former officer in the Territorial Army, Tugendhat is the only one on this list who has never served as a Secretary of State.
He’s served in Cabinet as the Minister for Security, though, and spent five years as the chairman of the influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee.
Tugendhat first came to the general public’s attention as a candidate in the Conservative leadership contest that followed Boris Johnson’s resignation in July 2022.
But he fell out of the race early and then backed Liz Truss for leader.
He’s considered to be close to the centre of the Tories ideologically, and a recent Savanta poll found he was the most popular leadership contender among both the public and 2024 Tory voters.
His message is to regain the British people’s trust as the previous government, which he was part of, ‘just didn’t deliver’.
But he could struggle to wrangle the party’s more fervently right-wing MPs. He come fourth in the first MP ballot and joint-third with Cleverly in the second.
Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick was the third to announce that he was running alongside Cleverly and Tugendhat.
Jenrick, a former Housing Secretary, reportedly spent the days after the General Election calling around new and old MPs to set himself up as a potential leadership candidate.
In his media appearances since, he has focused his attention on an issue that defined much of his work in parliament since 2022: immigration.
He was appointed Immigration Minister in Rishi Sunak’s first Cabinet after taking over from Liz Truss as PM and stayed in the role for over a year.
But he resigned in December 2023, arguing that Sunak’s effort to iron out legal issues with the Rwanda scheme did not go nearly far enough.
If the Tories decide they lost the election because their stance on immigration was not hardline enough, Jenrick might be their pick for leader – and so far, he’s come top of both MP ballots.
But he’s had to fight through controversies in the past, including long drives during the Covid lockdowns and the removal of a Disney-themed mural at a migrant centre for children.
Kemi Badenoch
Undoubtedly one of the biggest rising stars to emerge from the Conservative ranks in the past few years, Badenoch (pronounced Bayd-noch) started out as the bookies’ favourite to take over as leader before Jenrick snatched her spot.
While serving as Business Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities, she made her name by engaging directly with culture war issues, most prominently surrounding gender.
This wouldn’t be her first pop at the party leadership: she previously came fourth in the July 2022 contest, behind Penny Mordaunt, Rishi Sunak and ultimate winner Liz Truss.
Amazingly, Mordaunt and Truss both lost their seat at the last election and Sunak’s stepping down. Could that mean Badenoch is now destined for the top spot?
A win for her would be a win for the right wing of the party, but MPs believe she can also appeal to the centre.
At her launch event, she criticised the previous government (which she was part of) by saying it ‘talked right but governed left’ on issues like net zero.
Who has been knocked out already?
Priti Patel
Remember her? Dame Priti has been on the backbenches for almost two years now, since she resigned as Home Secretary upon Liz Truss’s arrival as PM.
But over her three years in the role, she had considerable impact. She was the one who first initiated the plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, and she introduced a new points-based immigration system.
She was the fifth person to confirm she was running in the leadership contest and the first woman.
But Dame Priti crashed out in the first round of voting after getting just 14 votes, half the total received by Robert Jenrick in first place.
Mel Stride
Mel Stride was the fourth Tory to put his name in the ring and said there was a ‘huge job to do’ for the party.
The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary was always an outsider bet for the leadership, but lasted until the second round of voting being being booted out of the race.
However, he might have set himself up as a popular choice to become shadow chancellor.
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