Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick join Tory leadership race as James Cleverly leads with MP endorsements - live

The three month process will begin this week, with the winner announced on 2 November.

Nominations will open on Wednesday and candidates need the the backing of 10 MPs to enter the first round of voting.

MPs will narrow this down to four candidates, who will then have a chance to speak to party members at the Conservative conference which starts on 29 September.

It will then be whittled down to two candidates, with the final winner chosen by Conservative Party members in an online ballot.

Rishi Sunak will remain the acting leader until November.

James Cleverly has said “there is a reasonable chance” he will throw his hat in the ring for the Tory leadership.

Asked whether he had the backing of 10 MPs, needed to enter the first round of voting, the Conservative frontbencher told Sky News: “I’ve had lots of very kind words from colleagues, both former colleagues and current colleagues.”

After Suella Braverman warned that the party risks becoming “centrist cranks”, Mr Cleverly said: “Trying to carve up and divide up and factionalise … is the wrong way of thinking.”

Former Home Secretary James Cleverly has refused to rule out running as the next Tory leader.

The senior Conservative told BBC Breakfast: “That is tomorrow’s work. I am going to talk about Labour’s catastrophic start in the home affairs portfolio.

“The leadership is important but what is actually my job at the moment is holding Labour to account and that is incredibly important because they are dropping the ball and it is being missed because of course there are other events going on, the Conservative leadership contest for example.

“But they are making terrible mistakes and it is not being noticed and it should be noticed because this goes to the heart of the security of our borders and our ability to make sure this country is safe.”

The next Conservative leader will be announced on 2 November, the party has said. 

The person chosen to replace Rishi Sunak will be named just days before the US presidential election, which is on 5 November.

The 1922 Committee has drawn up a timetable for the contest after the party suffered the worst general election result in its parliamentary history.

Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch and ex-foreign secretary James Cleverly are expected to pitch themselves as candidates aiming to bring the right and centrist wings of the party together after the humiliating defeat on 4 July.

Mr Sunak said: “It’s in the national interest for us to have a smooth and orderly transition to a new leader of the opposition, so I will stay in post until November 2nd, and the result of our leadership election.

“This will allow our party to fulfil its role as the official opposition professionally and effectively. I believe this is what is best for the Conservative Party and, most importantly, our country.

“It would be inappropriate for me to make any comment about the leadership campaign or candidates. I am confident that this timetable decided by the party board and the 1922 Committee will allow for a thoughtful, professional and respectful contest.”

Tory leadership hopeful Suella Braverman has rejected suggestions she will likely defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK later this year if she loses the contest.

“There’s now so much antagonism towards Suella Braverman among MPs that there is now a generally held view that she will defect,” a senior Tory source told the i newspaper. “If she does, it will be a clear admission that she could not win the leadership and does not have the support of any MPs in the party.”

But a spokesperson for the ex-home secretary denied the claim, telling the outlet: “Suella has only recently been elected as a Conservative MP and has been a Conservative Party member for three decades.”

However, a Reform source was quoted as saying: “We expect her to take a tilt at the Tory leadership and then come over to us, perhaps in the autumn around conference time.

“She’ll fit in well.”

A Tory MP received a round of applause after hitting out at his own party, saying they deserved to lose the general election.

George Freeman, who was a senior minister in Rishi Sunak’s government, slammed the Tories and accused his team of “taking voters for granted”, during a passionate Question Time speech.

Tory peer Daniel Hannan has called for a change in the party’s “absurd” leadership rules, warning that “the next Conservative leader will struggle to keep the job”.

In a piece for the ConservativeHome website, he wrote: “I say that, not as a comment on the next leader, but as a comment on our absurd leadership rules. To win, a candidate need only come second in the MPs’ ballot. But to remain in office, he or she needs more than half of MPs’ votes.

“We are the only party in the democratic world that, instead of building in some incumbency protection, makes it harder to hold the job than to win it in the first place.

Warning that “the rules are needlessly polarising” and that “we can’t keep putting this off”, he continued: “We can’t change the rules in the run-up to a leadership contest. But we need to change them afterward.

“The new leader should appoint a committee, bringing together figures from the 1922 and the Party Board, perhaps chaired by a former leader, to devise a better system. To forestall any temptation to game things in favour of a particular candidate, any changes should come into force only with a delay – say, from 2030. That will allow the authors to focus disinterestedly on finding the best system.

“How much more evidence do we need? What the devil are we waiting for?”