London, Sep 4 (PTI) British Indian former home secretary Priti Patel was on Wednesday voted out of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak as the next Conservative Party leader, winning the least number of ballots in the first round of voting by her fellow Tory members of Parliament.
Patel, 52, bagged only 14 out of 121 votes, with former immigration minister Robert Jenrick emerging as the frontrunner at this stage of the contest with 28 votes.
Shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch came in second with 22 votes and will now battle it out with former Tory ministers James Cleverly (21 votes), Tom Tugendhat (17 votes) and Mel Stride (16 votes) in the next round of voting by MPs next Tuesday when the field will be narrowed down further.
The results were announced by the chair of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, Bob Blackman, during a meeting within the Parliament complex in Westminster.
After next week’s vote, the four remaining candidates will go head-to-head at the party conference at the end of this month to make it as the final two on the online ballot papers for the wider Tory membership vote. The new leader will take over from Sunak, acting Opposition Leader in the House of Commons since the party’s defeat in the July 4 general election, on November 2.
“From growing up watching her father work seven days a week running the local shop to being on the side of businesses and entrepreneurs her whole career, Priti knows the value of hard work and enterprise,” read the final leadership pitch of the Gujarati heritage politician, who grew up helping out at the family-run local shop in England.
“Labour’s higher taxes and growing socialist state put the growing British economy at risk. Priti is best equipped to hold them to account,” said her camp.
While Jenrick has vowed to “unite the Conservative Party around our enduring principles”, Badenoch has focussed her leadership pitch on “making the case for renewal”. Cleverly claimed “momentum” was on his side and Tugendhat – now fighting Mel Stride to stay in the race next week – claimed he is the only candidate who can deliver a “Conservative revolution”. PTI AK GRS GRS GRS
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