Tories fear ANOTHER leader contest in 18 months as Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch face off after ‘almighty cock-up’ by MPs saw favourite James Cleverly ousted… with Boris Johnson ‘lurking’ in the wings
Tories have voiced fears of another leadership contest in 18 months as Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick battle it out for the crown.
Westminster was rocked yesterday when the shadow housing secretary and former immigration minister came first and second in the MPs’ ballot – with favourite James Cleverly ejected.
An adviser to Mr Cleverly’s campaign blamed an ‘almighty cock-up’ for his defeat – complaining that his supporters were trying to be ‘clever’ to sway who else would be in the run-off vote of party members.
As a bitter blame game erupted Tories bemoaned the ‘f***ing mess’ and MPs’ failure to give a clear signal to activists, with speculation that the victor might not still be in place by the time of the next election.
Tory veteran ex-MP Paul Goodman pointed out that Boris Johnson – who has pointedly refused to rule out a comeback to the Commons – remained a ‘lurking figure in the shadows’.
Westminster was rocked yesterday when the shadow housing secretary and former immigration minister came first and second in the MPs’ ballot – with favourite James Cleverly (pictured) ejected
Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick now have three weeks to make their case to the party faithful, with the winner set to be announced on November 2.
Conservative chiefs have flatly ruled out bringing the date forward so that the new leader can respond to the crucial Budget on October 30.
Mr Jenrick has thrown down the gauntlet to his rival to debate him on the airwaves ‘any time, any place, anywhere’, although so far only one TV face-off has been scheduled on GB News on October 17.
The Newark MP looked at serious risk of falling out of the race until last night.
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.
Mr Cleverly admitted he was ‘massively disappointed’ to be evicted.
Having come first in the ballot of his colleagues on Tuesday, he slumped to third on 37 – behind both Ms Badenoch on 42 and Robert Jenrick on 41.
There were audible gasps in the Parliamentary committee room as the figures were read out.
Some claimed that Mr Cleverly’s allies had ‘loaned’ support to Mr Jenrick in a bid to secure an easier opponent in the vote by party members.
Others suggested the opposite, that Mr Jenrick had marshalled extra backing for Mr Cleverly in the previous round and then recalled it.
Tom Skinner, an adviser to Mr Cleverly’s campaign, told LBC: ‘To be honest it’s an almighty cock-up. Everyone’s shocked.’
He added: ‘One of the problems with politics is that everyone in politics thinks they are very clever. They all think they are cleverer than everybody else.
‘Too many people went in there trying to vote for the person who they thought would knock out the person they didn’t like.
‘There were so many MPs who were ‘anyone but Rob and anyone but Kemi’… what it’s meant is that en masse… sadly from my point of view it’s done for James.’
Boris Johnson at his book launch in London earlier this week with James Cleverly
Tom Skinner, an adviser to Mr Cleverly’s campaign, told LBC: ‘To be honest it’s an almighty cock-up. Everyone’s shocked.’
He had been expected to pick up most of the moderate votes of supporters of Tom Tugendhat, who was knocked out yesterday.
However, both teams denied ordering backers to use double-dealing tactics, and the reaction from many was confusion.
Asked what had happened, one despairing MP who favoured Mr Cleverly said: ‘God knows.’ They added: ‘Tory MPs are too inward looking.’
Other Conservatives griped that too many MPs were ‘thought they were in House of Cards‘.
And one miserable MP told The Times: ‘The party’s f***ed. The public will look at us at the next election and think ‘these people haven’t learned a thing’. But we’ll probably be doing this again in 18 months anyway.’
