James Cleverly comes out on top in the UK Conservatives leadership race | Political Affairs

The contest to replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will continue until November 2.

Conservative lawmakers in Britain have kicked former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat out of the party leadership race, leaving three contenders to lead the party after its defeat in the July election.

Tugendhat received 20 votes out of 120 members of parliament, finishing last. Former Secretary of State James Cleverly led the way with 39 votes.

Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick received 31 votes and former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch received 30.

Another candidate will be kicked out of the legislative race on Wednesday before tens of thousands of party members across the country vote in the last midnight.

This result adds to Cleverly’s momentum in this race. Cleverly, a centrist, won support with a well-received speech at last week’s Conservative conference. He urged the divisive party to “get used to it” and said he had the skills to defeat Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party and return the Conservatives to power at the next election, due in 2029.

Jenrick, a hardliner who wants Britain to intervene in immigration and breach European human rights law, has been considered the front-runner since the competition began in July.

Jenrick made his name when he resigned as immigration minister under Sunak over what he called Rwanda’s “horrible system” of sending asylum seekers to the African nation. Then he said it wasn’t strong enough.

Badenoch, a former trade minister, has positioned himself as an outspoken figure not only in the right wing of the party but also in young lawmakers, promising to be “something different”, a challenging voice in what he describes as a broken government system.

Criticized by some but loved by others for his outspoken views on Brexit and what he called “identity politics”, Badenoch said he wanted the party to return to “real Conservatism” and stop “talking right, ruling left”.

The contest to replace Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will continue until November 2 after Conservative members vote for a new leader, who is charged with turning around the fortunes of the party that was ousted in the July 4 election by Labour.

The party’s last leadership election, in mid-2022, saw members choose Liz Truss over Rishi Sunak. Truss resigned as prime minister after just 49 days in office when his plans to cut taxes rocked financial markets and damaged the value of the pound. The team then chose Sunak as his replacement.

In July, Sunak led the Conservative Party to its worst election result since 1832. The Conservatives lost more than 200 parliamentary seats, bringing their numbers down to 121.