(Bloomberg) -- Former Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride threw his hat into the Conservative Party leadership contest, pledging to rebuild the UK opposition as he became the fourth contender to replace Rishi Sunak at its helm.
“It requires a lot of painstaking work in order to work out a credible offer to the British people that is broad and generous in its nature and fiscally fundable,” Stride told Times Radio on Friday. “I’m in a good position to get people together to do that. We have five years now to the next general election. This is about opposition, effective opposition, and rebuilding our party.”
Stride follows former Foreign and Home Secretary James Cleverly, former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat and ex-Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick in declaring his candidacy in a competition that will run until Nov. 2
The leadership race will determine the political direction of the Conservatives party, which suffered its worst ever election defeat in this month’s general election, ending 14 years of power. While Stride and Cleverly are advocating for a more centrist approach, others, like Jenrick, want the party to focus on reducing immigration, to appeal to the 14% of voters who backed Nigel Farage’s anti-immigrant Reform UK party on July 4.
Jenrick has signaled a willingness to take Britain out of the European Convention on Human Rights if needed to bring down immigration — a view that earned the surprise backing of Tugendhat, a party centrist from its so-called One Nation tradition, when he announced he was standing earlier this week.
“If institutions do not serve the British people and make it harder to control our own borders, then we will have to exempt ourselves from them, or leave their jurisdiction,” Tugendhat wrote in Thursday’s Telegraph newspaper.
Cleverly, by contrast, has previously said he isn’t convinced by the need to leave the convention, and only briefly mentioned immigration in his launch video this week.
ECHR membership has become a dividing line within the Conservatives after the court that enforces it blocked flights deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda in 2022. Polls suggest voters prefer to stay in the ECHR than leave it, although a majority of Conservatives favor withdrawal.
Stride said the Tories’ narrow appeal is problematic as it seeks to rebuild the trust of voters in the wake of its catastrophic defeat. “If you’re a party that relies on people who are substantially over the age of 60 for its majorities across the country, that’s a very deeply difficult position to be in,” he said.
Tugendhat – who was a soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan before chairing parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee – also called for an increase in defense spending to 3% of gross domestic product, from under 2.5% currently. That’s “a small price to pay for our continued freedom and security,” he wrote. The new Labour government has pledged to spend 2.5% of GDP on defense, without committing to a time frame for the increase.
“The public wanted the things we promised: lower taxes, lower immigration, more control over their everyday lives,” Tugendhat continued. “We just didn’t deliver.”
Leadership nominations close mid-afternoon on July 29. Conservative Members of Parliament will then narrow the four candidates by the end of September – in time for the party’s annual conference – before shortlisting two for a party member vote. The new leader is set to be announced on Nov. 2.
The bookmakers’ favorite to win the contest is former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who has yet to declare. Other potential contenders include former Home Secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman.
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