(Bloomberg) -- Six Members of Parliament will battle to replace former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader of the UK Conservatives, with the task of resurrecting the party from its worst ever electoral defeat.
The bookmakers’ favorite to win the three-month contest is former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who’s been joined in the starting line-up by former ministers James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat.
The shortlist was announced Monday by Bob Blackman, chairman of the 1922 Committee — the grouping of backbench Conservatives which runs and sets the rules for leadership contests. Tory MPs will whittle the six candidates down to four in time for the party’s annual conference at the end of September, and then to two to be put to grassroots member in a wider vote. The winner will be announced Nov. 2.
At stake is the leadership and political direction of a party that styles itself as the natural party of power, having led governments for about two thirds of the past century.
Here’s a rundown of the candidates:
Kemi Badenoch
Popular with the grassroots, Badenoch, 44, is currently the bookmakers’ favorite to win. After coming fourth in the leadership election to replace Boris Johnson in 2022, she was appointed Secretary of State for Trade and minister for women and equalities by Liz Truss, and retained by Sunak, who then fleshed out her role with a mandate also for business.
She styles herself as anti-woke, having argued that the UK is not institutionally racist, and introduced guidance that teachers should tell parents if their child wants to change their gender identity at school. In launching her campaign, she wrote in Monday’s Times newspaper that the Tory offering at the general election had been “incoherent” and suggested the party had become too liberal. She advocated a “renewal for capitalism” and emphasized the importance of national sovereignty. Born to Nigerian parents, she would be the first black person to lead one of the UK’s two big parties.
James Cleverly
The most experienced former minister in the race, Cleverly, 54, has served as both Foreign and Home Secretary. A centrist, he will point to his efforts to support Ukraine, reduce migration and process asylum seekers in Rwanda, although these also link him to the previous government.
With his genial manner, Cleverly is popular among fellow MPs, but has also developed a reputation for gaffes. He’s failed to deny accusations that he privately described the Rwanda plan as “batshit” before being made home secretary with responsibility for delivering it; last year he was forced to apologize for using a swear word to describe a Labour MP, while denying insulting the lawmaker’s constituency, and more recently raised eyebrows with a joke about spiking his wife’s drink.
Priti Patel
Patel, 52, hails from the party’s right and was the home secretary who introduced the Rwanda program. A Boris Johnson loyalist, she was not made a minister by either of the premier’s who succeeded him, Liz Truss and Sunak. She danced with Brexit architect Nigel Farage at last year’s Conservative Party conference, which may arouse suspicions within her own party about her proximity to the now leader of Reform UK, which siphoned off millions of Tory votes in the general election.
She’s also tainted after being hit in 2020 by allegations that she had bullied civil servants. While she denied doing so, an inquiry found she had broken ministerial rules.
Robert Jenrick
Once a key ally of Sunak, Jenrick, 42, developed a reputation as a hard-liner on immigration after being put in charge of the brief in government, before resigning in protest at efforts to implement the Rwanda program that he said didn’t go far enough. Since then, he’s siphoned off support from former Home Secretary Suella Braverman, a one-time favorite to inherit the leadership from Sunak.
Jenrick will look to convince colleagues that he has the charisma needed in a leader, after his early reputation as a moderate earned him the nickname “Robert Generic” in Westminster.
Mel Stride
The former Work and Pensions Secretary, 62, was a key Sunak ally, devising his plan to move people with long-term illnesses back into work to slash the benefits bill. A moderate and a remainer in the Brexit referendum, Stride was also rolled out regularly during the general election campaign to defend the party’s position. He previously led the Treasury select committee.
Tom Tugendhat
Tugendhat, 51, served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan before entering Parliament in 2015. In 2017, he became chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, serving for five years. After coming fifth in the leadership election to replace Boris Johnson, he was appointed security minister by Liz Truss, with Sunak keeping him on. A centrist who supported a closer trading relationship with the European Union and has a dual British-French citizenship, Tugendhat has shown he’s prepared to throw red meat to the right of the party by suggesting in his leadership pitch last week that he’d be prepared to pull the country out of the European Convention on Human Rights.
--With assistance from Ellen Milligan.
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