Those hoping to become leader of the Conservative Party and the next prime minister, needed to secure the support of 20 Tory MPs by 6pm this evening in order to make it on the ballot paper. There are eight MPs in the race.
Sajid Javid announced his withdrawal minutes before the result was announced, as did Rehman Chishti. Javid resigned from the government at the same time as Rishi Sunak, triggering a wave of resignations that led to Boris Johnson’s downfall.
Sunak gained the most nominations from Conservative MPs today. He is joined by seven others in the first round of voting. They are:
- Suella Braverman (Attorney General)
- Kemi Badenoch (former Minister of State for Local Government and Minister of State for Equalities)
- Jeremy Hunt (former Health Secretary)
- Penny Mordaunt (Trade Minister)
- Liz Truss (Foreign Secretary)
- Tom Tugendhat (Foreign Affairs Select Committee Chair)
- Nadhim Zahawi (Chancellor).
I have withdrawn from the Conservative leadership race.
We now have an opportunity to renew and reunite as a party. In the last few days we have already seen an abundance of talent and ideas.
I look forward to working together and delivering for our great country.
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) July 12, 2022
The first round of voting will take place tomorrow (Wednesday) from 13:30 to 15:30. Any candidate who gets less than 30 votes from fellow Conservative MPs will be eliminated.
Subsequent votes before the House of Commons rises for the summer on 21 July will whittle the number of candidates down to two. These will then go to a full ballot of the 160,000 or so Conservative Party members over the summer.
The result is expected to be declared on 5 September, the day the Commons returns.
Currently, the bookies have Mordaunt and Sunak in the lead with odds of 2:1. But much could change in the next few days.
* Andy Boddington is a Lib Dem councillor in Shropshire. He blogs at andybodders.co.uk. He is Thursday editor of Lib Dem Voice.
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23 Comments
He who wields the knife shall never wear the crown?
I find the names of the Tory contenders interesting – not a single surname appears in the top 20 most common surnames for any of the UK countries. Unrepresentative or what…
I think they all are capable of back stabbing.
What a bizarre comment. Unworthy of any political thinker and anyone who is committed to the liberal values of diversity and inclusiveness.
@Andy Boddington
Actually, a truly inclusive society will have a political class that is fully representative of the general population. The list of Tory contenders appears to represent the ethnic mix but not the social class mix of the UK.
Surnames are strongly correlated with ethnicity but social class is only weakly correlated. Surnames are irrelevant to the political debate.
Alisdair McGregor 12th Jul ’22 – 11:51pm:
He who wields the knife shall never wear the crown?/i>
Or updated for the modern age: He who registers the domain shall never wear the crown?
readyforrishi.com:
https://www.whois.com/whois/readyforrishi.com
@Brad Barrows “not a single surname appears in the top 20 most common surnames for any of the UK countries. Unrepresentative or what…”
@Andy Boddington “the liberal values of diversity and inclusiveness”
I must admit that I find it somewhat surprising that the Conservative Party is the one with such diversity of ethnicity and gender in potential leaders. Labour doesn’t even have the same excuse of a small number of MPs as the Lib Dems (who did at least have a female leader briefly). But all parties, though perhaps Labour less so, appear to have a big problem with socioeconomic diversity.
Perhaps we need to look at why the other parties do not attract non European people .Could be to do with the fact that the Tories are the party that is often in power than the other parties.If we are to encourage non European citizens to join maybe we should review our recruitment process.
Having watched the personal statements of the candidates on YouTube – I must admit that Kemi Badenoch is an accomplished speaker , very on point and direct . I’m sure she’ll appeal to the party members & beyond for that matter , but a big if as regards being in the last two… Obviously not for me politically , but what she said will resonate with many socially conservative voters , who time again return the Tories to power ….
At a time when the very fabric of our society is in danger of being destroyed, only LibDems could stand on the deck of the Titanic and argue about the colour of the deckchairs
Our MPs are not lacking in ethnic diversity. Munira Wilson is of East African Indian heritage and Layla Moran of Palestinian heritage. More than half our MPs are women. I don’t think any of our MPs are in the Rishi Sunak class of wealth and some are just ordinary people doing an extraordinary job.
@Andy Boddington “I don’t think any of our MPs are in the Rishi Sunak class of wealth”
But did he inherit that “class of wealth” or earn it? I don’t know where Sunak’s money came from (though I get the impression he married into a large part of it), but his Wikipedia page states, “Yashvir [his father] was a general practitioner, and Usha [his mother] was a pharmacist who ran a local pharmacy” which sounds pretty unremarkable (in a Lib Dem context, that is; obviously it’s a lofty starting point by any other measure!).
@expats “only LibDems could stand on the deck of the Titanic and argue about the colour of the deckchairs”
I think that it simply brings to mind wider concerns about how diverse and how representative the party is, not just in terms of its parliamentarians, but also its membership and support, factors which are likely to influence how the party is perceived and how it might prioritise policies.
With regards to socioeconomic diversity, I am often reminded of Alasdair Rae’s (https://twitter.com/undertheraedar) correlation of deprivation with representation in UK constituencies. As well as showing Conservative and SNP support to be more widely distributed than their rivals, this graphic (http://automaticknowledge.org/images/uk-deprivation-constituency-2021-v1-border.png) shows Lib Dem seats and targets very much on the right-hand more affluent side. It wasn’t always like that: a series of Rae’s charts show a rightward shift (on the graphic, anyway!) by the Lib Dems over the last few elections. Appearing to target the “Surrey solicitor” or university-educated remainers is not reassuring in the context of this direction of travel.
Exactly, I really admire and envy the diversity of this group. Any other party would be proud to field such as diverse array of candidates. You can by all means disagree with their views and policies but the Conservative party are proving themselves to be far more inclusive when it comes the this leadership election and the next PM than Labour could ever dream of.
Jason, wow that is a presumptive conclusion, no – one knows what the future may hold.
It is interesting, but rather sad how we can too easily get sucked into the rather stereotypical aspects of diversity and then argue with each other about them, and miss the real examples of lack of diversity which the field in the Conservative Leadership election show and amplifying that.
A few different, but but similar aspects
1) 6/7 were brought up in the Home Counties (Excl Nadhim Zahawi),
2) 7/8 Went to a Public School (Liz Truss to an ex Grammar School),
3) 8/8 went to University, none any further from London than Oxford,
3.1) 5/8 went to Oxbridge
4) 7/8 represent constituencies they had next to no links to prior to their selection.
5) 4/8 were born in London
No wonder the South East gets most of the Government funding available and most of the country feels the Conservatives don’t represent them or their values.
Jason Connor 13th Jul ’22 – 1:34pm…………… I really admire and envy the diversity of this group. Any other party would be proud to field such as diverse array of candidates. You can by all means disagree with their views and policies….
Really? I don’t give a hang about their ethnic diversity; it’s what they all have in common that concerns me.
BTW, I note your post said ‘you can’; my words would have been ‘we must’..
@David Evans “A few different, but but similar aspects …”
That highlights depressing aspects of the socioeconomic gap between potential Tory leaders and the rest of the population, but this party’s last two leadership candidates, Ed Davey and Layla Moran, don’t score too favourably on the same list. Both parties make Labour’s Keir Starmer, Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy look positively proletarian!
@ Peter Watson Actually, Peter, Lisa Nandy (for whom I have a very great respect and regard) ain’t all that proletarian despite going to the local Comp and before Uni at Newcastle and London.
I knew her maternal Granddad when I worked at Liberal HQ back in the 1960’s – a certain Lord Frank Byers, former Liberal MP, Chief Whip, and Leader of the Liberal Peers. Colonel Byers (as he was known) was the son of a Lloyds underwriter and went to Westminster School – fairly posh (like Sir Nick) . Frank was a Director of Rio Tinto Zinc. Her paternal Granddad was also an interesting character.
Sir Edward, I believe, went to Nottingham High School – as a scholarship boy.
@David Raw
Thanks for that – a day without learning is a day wasted! 🙂 And I am once again impressed by a little glimpse into your personal political history.
It inspired me to do a bit of research (that sounds so much grander than sniffing around Wikipedia! 🙂 ), and I would query David Evans’ “7/8 Went to a Public School (Liz Truss to an ex Grammar School)”. As far as I can tell from a cursory review:
> Penny Mordaunt went to an RC comprehensive state school
> Nadhim Zahawi went to a comp (and then an independent school)
> Suella Braverman went to a state primary and then an independent high school on a
partial scholarship
> Kemi Badenoch is tricky to pin down but it looks like she returned to the UK at 16 and did her A-levels at a “former further education college”
> Liz Truss’ school became a comprehensive in 1972, about 3 years before she was born
So it looks like 6/8 went to an independent school, 5/8 went to a state school (in 1 case pre-11 and another post-16), and the “ex grammar” of Liz Truss’ school is a red herring. But then, I don’t suppose any of our politicians had much say in the choice of schools!
And now, after defending Conservative MPs, I feel the need to shower! 🙁
Thanks for the extra research Peter. Tidying up where we can
> Penny Mordaunt went to an Roman Catholic aided school – made from a merger of a convent school and the RC Grammar – It is very definitely an ‘old school’ sort of school.
> Nadhim Zahawi did indeed go to a comprehensive school for what I am led to believe was a very short period, and then two different independent schools (one O levels and the other A Levels?)
> Suella Braverman did indeed go to a state primary but her parents decided to send her to an independent high school where she won a partial scholarship (on balance I would suggest secondary school is massively more influential on a youngster’s political outlook than their primary school).
> Kemi Badenoch is tricky to pin down but it looks like she returned to the UK at 16 and did her A-levels at a “former further education college”
> Liz Truss’ school became a comprehensive in 1972, about 3 years before she was born, but Roundhay is a seriously Old school type of school in a very nice part of Leeds
> Jeremy hunt went to Charterhouse
> Tom Tugendhat went to St Paul’s
> Rishi Sunak went to Winchester
All in all, I would still suggest a vast amount of depth but not much breadth.
When I was in hospital some time ago, the most important thing I, and everyone in a similar position, hoped for, was that the surgery would be a success. That the surgeon would know exactly what was required to do the job in hand. That the extremely complex issues were understood, that the necessary treatment proposed would be the best option, that they would deal with it successfully and that I would fully recover.
Some of the issues that did not matter to me and those other patients were: the school the surgeon went to, how wealthy they might be, their race, ethnicity, gender or social class.
I suspect that, like many others, I just want the next Prime Minister to tell the truth and be good at the job. What their race, wealth, school, gender, class etc. might be will not be important – if they can deal with some of the complex issues that need tackling in the economy, the NHS, Ukraine and much much more.