Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have left the race to become UK Conservative leader Political Affairs

Party members will now choose between former Trade Minister Badenoch and former Immigration Minister Jenrick after James Cleverly was dropped from the race.

Two far-right ministers will go head-to-head in the final round of the race to become the next leader of the UK Conservative Party after former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly was ousted.

Wednesday’s vote by Conservative MPs saw Kemi Badenoch get 42 out of 120 votes, ahead of Robert Jenrick by 41 votes. As it happened, Cleverly, the previous poll winner, was eliminated from the race by 37 votes.

The vote is the first step in a race that has been marked by infighting that some Conservatives blame for their party’s defeat in July’s general election.

Party members across the country will now choose between former Trade Minister Badenoch and former Immigration Minister Jenrick, with the winner to be announced on November 2.

Jenrick, a campaigner who wants the United Kingdom to make deep cuts to immigration and scrap European human rights law, has been seen as the front-runner since the race began in July.

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

According to the Conservative Home website, Badenoch is the most popular candidate among party members.

The final two said they would unite a party that had been riven by chaos, scandal and deep divisions over Brexit during the last eight years in government, and promised to return it to its roots of intransigence to provide an alternative for Labor in the next country. elections, due to take place in mid-2029.

Whoever becomes leader will be charged with turning around the fortunes of the Conservatives after a heavy defeat in July’s election, which Labor won in a landslide.

But the Conservatives have higher hopes of returning to power in five years than 10 once expected after Prime Minister Keir Starmer made a rocky start in government, widely criticized for cuts to welfare and clothing donations.