Great Britain
Updated on 04.09.2024, 17:53
In July, Sunak, former Tory party leader, announced his resignation. Now the Tories are looking for a successor. (Archive image) © picture alliance / empics/House of Commons/UK Parliament
The Conservatives have achieved the worst result in their recent history in the British parliamentary elections. A successor for former party leader Sunak is now being sought.
Exactly two months to the day after their historic debacle in Great Britain, the Conservatives have begun electing a successor to party leader Rishi Sunak. In the first round in the parliamentary group, former Home Secretary and hardliner Priti Patel (52) received the fewest votes and was eliminated. This means that there are still five candidates in the race.
The best performer was former Secretary of State for Migration Robert Jenrick, who was voted for by 28 of 121 MPs. The 42-year-old is campaigning for Britain to leave the European Convention on Human Rights in order to crack down on irregular migration.
In the parliamentary elections on July 4, the Conservative Party received its worst result in recent history. Party leader Sunak announced his resignation. For the first time in 14 years, the social democratic Labour Party has been in power in the United Kingdom again with the new Prime Minister Keir Starmer (62).
Five candidates still in the race
Former business minister Kemi Badenoch (44), who also belongs to the right wing of the party and performed best in a poll among party members, came in second place with 22 votes. Just behind him is former home secretary James Cleverly (54), a moderate representative. Tom Tugendhat (51), who was Secretary of State for Security under Sunak, and Mel Stride (62), most recently Minister of Employment, are also considered moderate candidates.
However, experts assume that the Conservative Party will move further to the right in response to the electoral success of the right-wing populist party Reform UK. Nigel Farage’s party, who once played a key role in driving forward Brexit, entered parliament for the first time with five members in the election at the beginning of July. However, analysts point out that the Tories also lost a lot of votes to the Liberal Democrats, especially in their home areas in southern England.
New party leadership to be announced in early November
In the case of the Tories, the 121 members of the conservative parliamentary group will now vote in several rounds in a process lasting several weeks until two candidates are left. The party base will then decide who it will be. The result will be announced on November 2nd.
“How the editorial team works” informs you when and what we report on, how we deal with errors and where our content comes from. In reporting, we adhere to the guidelines of the Journalism Trust Initiative.
