The interminable process to replace failed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as the leader of the Conservative Party has been whittled down to two candidates Wednesday after former Home Secretary James Cleverly was knocked out of the running.
Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and ex-Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch have been left as the last two candidates standing in the months-long contest for the Conservative Party leadership after a narrow vote among Tory MPs on Wednesday afternoon.
The vote saw Badenoch receive the support of 42 fellow MPs, compared to 41 for Jenrick, and 37 for former Home Secretary James Cleverly, who has now been elimnated from the running.
While Cleverly had been seen as one of the frontrunners and had expected to pick up support from those who previously backed neo-con MP Tom Tugendhat — who was eliminated on Tuesday — such support failed to materialise and in fact, he actually lost votes from the previous round.
Mr Cleverly said per the Daily Mail: “I’m grateful for the support I’ve received on this campaign from colleagues, party members and the public. Sadly it wasn’t to be.
“We are all Conservatives, and it’s important the Conservative Party unites to take on this catastrophic Labour government.”
The elimination of the establishment darling leaves the race in the hands of the supposed right-wing of the Conservative Party, which despite its name, now stands as essentially a European social democrat party.
Badenoch, the London-born Nigerian-raised MP for North West Essex, made a name for herself within the party as an “anti-woke crusader” and won plaudits over her strong denunciations of Critical Race Theory and the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in the United States.
The Tory MP has faced criticism, however, over her previous support for immigration, with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage writing of the Tory hopeful: “Kemi Badenoch has spent weeks positioning herself as tough on immigration. But in 2018 she campaigned in Parliament to increase legal migration, and was the biggest champion for students bringing in dependents.
“I don’t believe a word that she says on anything.”
Badenoch has tried to take a harder line on immigration during the leadership campaign, saying that when considering which counties to take in migrants from it is important to recognise that “not all cultures equally valid” and that some bring with them “ancestral ethnic hostilities” as has played out on the streets of Britain during anti-Israel demonstrations.
Her rival, former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick has also taken a harder line on immigration than previous Tory leaders, calling for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and its related court, which has frequently intervened in domestic British immigration policy and blocked deportations.
Striking a noticeably populist tone, Jenrick said last month that mass migration was threatening “English identity” and that the “metropolitan establishment” in favour of open borders agendas “seem happier celebrating other cultures”.
“I can’t stomach such lofty arrogance, as most of the country can’t either. We don’t want a new identity, we want our existing identity to be championed again with passion,” Jenrick said.
This newfound rhetoric from the former immigration minister has led Nigel Farage to accuse him of attmpeting to steal his style to win the top Tory job.
“Jenrick tried to be Nigel Farage, I mean I could give him lessons if he wants, I could coach him, but you can’t try & out Farage Farage unless you’ve got a track record of believing in these things,” Farage said Tuesday.
