Tory leadership race enters final stretch after shock result in ballot of MPs

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Louise Thomas

Editor

The first full day of campaigning for the remaining two Conservative leadership candidates begins, following a shock result in the last ballot of MPs on Wednesday.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick will start making their pitch to Conservative Party members on Thursday, as they go head to head in the contest to succeed Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.

James Cleverly was unexpectedly knocked out of the competition on Wednesday, having been the bookmakers’ favourite after the previous round of voting.

Shadow home secretary Mr Cleverly’s allies strongly denied his supporters had been involved in an attempt at co-ordinated vote-sharing to engineer a place for himself and a less-threatening rival in the final heat.

Similar denials came from a Jenrick campaign source, who suggested the 120 Tory MPs voting in the contest had done so “in 120 different ways, for 120 different reasons”.

Tory MPs speculated there was the possibility of individuals backing their second favourite candidate, assuming their preferred choice was already safe.

One told the PA news agency: “One of two things has happened. Either a number of people lent James Cleverly their votes yesterday and rolled them back. Or James Cleverly’s lent votes to Robert Jenrick and over-egged it.”

Both remaining candidates now have to make their case to Conservative members across the country, ahead of the final result being announced on November 2.

Mr Jenrick is expected to make a speech about his campaign on Thursday as the final leg of the contest begins, and has thrown down the gauntlet to his rival to debate him on the airwaves “any time, any place, anywhere”.

The Newark MP’s position in the final two was not so sure going into Wednesday, and he was said to have spent the previous night calling MPs to press for their support after a “moment of real nerves” about his place in the contest.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Jenrick admitted he had been written off and said his plan for a legally binding cap on immigrants in the tens of thousands has Reform leader Nigel Farage “rattled”.

“He knows I am the candidate who will win back those voters we lost to Reform – something our political recovery depends on,” he said, vowing not to “lurch to the Right or to the Left”.

Ms Badenoch has meanwhile called on Tory members to “go bold” and back her, as she said she could unite the party after 78 Tory MPs voted for other candidates in the last ballot of the parliamentary party.