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Louise Thomas
Editor
Robert Jenrick has won the first round of voting in the race to be the next Conservative leader as Dame Priti Patel was eliminated.
The former immigration minister took 28 votes, beating the favourite Kemi Badenoch into second with the backing of 22 Tory MPs.
The other contenders still in the running are former security minister Tom Tugendhat, ex-home secretary James Cleverly and Mel Stride.
Next week the group will be whittled down again, to just four.
Next month’s Conservative party conference will then be dominated by the contest, after which MPs will choose who to put into the final two.
The final candidates will be voted on by Tory members, with the winner expected to be announced on 2 November.
Earlier Sir Keir Starmer described Ms Badenoch as the "favourite" in the Tory leadership race at PMQs, and she was the bookies’ choice.
But it was Mr Jenrick, who last month sparked outrage after he said people shouting “Allahu Akbar” on London streets “should be arrested immediately”, who secured the most votes from Tory MPs.
The results saw Mr Jenrick win 28 votes, Ms Badenoch 22, ex-home secretary James Cleverly 21, former security minister Tom Tugendhat 17, ex-cabinet minister Mel Stride 16 and Dame Priti, another former home secretary, 14.
Responding to her loss in the ballot, Dame Priti paid tribute to Tory members, councillors and association officers she met during her campaign as “the heart and soul of our party”, and insisted the Conservatives must grow their membership and reach a younger voter base.
She also called on fellow Tories to “unite around our Conservative values”.
“I wish my fellow candidates well with the rest of the leadership campaign and thank them for the good-spirited debated we have had,” she added.
Shadow communities secretary Ms Badenoch claimed the result showed there was “huge support” for her campaign.
“It’s time to deal with hard truths today, rather than big problems tomorrow,” she added on X.
“I look forward to making the case for renewal around the country, with colleagues and members.”
Mr Cleverly added that “momentum” was on his side, saying it was “great to be through to the next round” and adding “I am ready to lead, and win, the next General Election”.
Mr Tugendhat said he was “honoured to have made it through to the next round of this leadership contest. I am ready to serve, lead and act to make Britain a better place.”
Mr Sunak’s government was rocked last December by the resignation of Mr Jenrick after the PM failed to appease Tory right-wingers with his emergency Rwanda legislation.
In a scathing resignation letter, Mr Jenrick told Mr Sunak he did not believe the new bill provided “us with the best possible chances of success” in getting Rwanda flights off the ground.
The hardliner made clear he wanted to bypass the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – revealing that he had been “pushing for the strongest possible” bill that would put “national interests above highly contested interpretations of international law”.
In response, Mr Sunak branded his departure “disappointing”, but told Mr Jenrick in a letter he feared it was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation”.
Earlier this week he doubled down on plan to leave the ECHR.
The former home office minister, who has emerged as the leading candidate for the Tory right-wing, hit out at claims from his rivals that he was looking for “easy answers” by saying he would call to leave the convention.
He has said that reforming the ECHR would take decades and that if voters gave the Tories another chance to fix immigration they “will not give us another chance” if the party failed again.
Mr Cleverly, who oversaw the Rwanda deportation legislation, had argued that it was not the ECHR that blocked Rwanda flights but the UK Supreme Court.
Responding to the vote, a Labour Party spokesperson said the Tories had “successfully slimmed down the pool of contenders from six people who each played their hand in 14 years of chaos and decline, to five people who each played their hand in 14 years of chaos and decline.
"From what we have seen so far, not one of them is prepared to learn from the lessons of the past.”
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