Ex-UK Home Secretary Patel Knocked Out of Tory Leadership Race

(Bloomberg) -- Former UK Home Secretary Priti Patel was knocked out of the Conservative leadership contest after the first round of voting among the party’s lawmakers, leaving five colleagues to battle it out over the next two months.

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Patel received just 14 votes from the opposition party’s 121 Members of Parliament, finishing just behind Former UK Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride on 16 votes. Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick topped the ballot on 28 votes, finishing ahead of the bookmakers’ favorite, former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch on 22. Former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly earned the support of 21 MPs, while former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat came fourth on 17.

The winning candidate faces the daunting task of rebuilding a party which collapsed to its worst-ever electoral defeat just two months ago. The Tories style themselves as the UK’s natural party of government, having been in power for more than 60 years in the past century. But the July 4 vote exposed how badly their brand is damaged among the electorate after 14 years in power, including a scandal-hit and chaotic period under former premiers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

Conservative MPs will eliminate another candidate before their party’s annual conference begins Sept. 29 in Birmingham. They’ll then whittle the field down to two, who will go forward to a vote among the wider party membership, with the winner — former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s replacement — scheduled to be announced on Nov. 2

A survey of 863 party members published on Wednesday by the influential ConservativeHome website found Badenoch is the most popular candidate on 34%, almost double her closest rival, Jenrick, on 18%. Tugendhat and Cleverly trailed on 13% and 11% respectively. Furthermore, in a two-person runoff, Badenoch would beat all other candidates, ConservativeHome said.

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