Former home secretary James Cleverly was knocked out in the latest round of the Conservative Party leadership contest.

Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch will go head-to-head in the final heat of the Conservative Party leadership contest, after James Cleverly was knocked out in the latest round of voting.

Former home secretary Mr Cleverly was eliminated in Wednesday’s ballot of Tory MPs, following Tom Tugendhat who was knocked out on Tuesday.

Ms Badenoch won 42 votes and Mr Jenrick 41 votes, to Mr Cleverly’s 37 votes in the latest ballot, with 120 Tory MPs having taken part.

The final round of the contest will now see Conservative Party members across the UK vote to select the successor to Rishi Sunak.

The result will be announced on November 2.

Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick are both seen as candidates favoured by the right of the Conservative Party, while Mr Cleverly was thought of as a more centre-ground Tory.

The latest result has upset many predictions in Westminster and beyond, as Mr Cleverly was seen as the bookmakers’ favourite to win the contest after Tuesday’s round of voting.

More from Perspective

Get a free copy of our print edition

News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.
You need to agree with the terms to proceed

Your email address will not be published. The views expressed in the comments below are not those of Perspective. We encourage healthy debate, but racist, misogynistic, homophobic and other types of hateful comments will not be published.