The end is finally in sight in the months-long race to succeed Rishi Sunak as two hard-right candidates battle to become Tory leader.
Kemi Badenoch now looks unstoppable after a bombshell poll showed she is the overwhelming favourite among Tory members. Fellow hardliner Robert Jenrick will spend the next week desperately trying to make up ground ahead of next Saturday’s announcement – but it’s increasingly looking like it’s too little, too late.
The duo were the surprise final two after bookies’ James Cleverly was knocked out in a suspected case of tactical voting gone wrong. In an impassioned conference speech Mr Cleverly had pleaded with Tory members to “be more normal” – to no avail.
A poll by Conservative Home of party members found 55% back Ms Badenoch, with 31% behind Mr Jenrick. The rest are undecided – but on Friday morning Mr Jenrick claimed the race was still “neck and neck”.
Whoever wins will be charged with trying to unite a deeply-divided party amid speculation there might be another leadership race before the next General Election. Here we look at some of the terrible things that have happened during this leadership race that will make you glad the Tories are no longer in power.
1. Kemi Badenoch claims maternity support has ‘gone too far’
The Shadow Housing Secretary landed herself in hot water with remarks about maternity pay. Speaking to Times Radio, Ms Badenoch described statutory maternity pay as “a function of tax”, and said: “Tax comes from people who are working – we’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.”
She later claimed not to have rallied against maternity pay at all. She wrote: “Contrary to what some have said, I clearly said the burden of regulation on businesses had gone too far… of course I believe in maternity pay!”
2. Robert Jenrick uses footage of dead soldier to make ‘simply wrong’ killing claim
Robert Jenrick used footage of a soldier who has since died to make a misleading claim about SAS troops killing rather than capturing militants, it is claimed. Tom Tugendhat, who served with the Special Forces trooper, could barely conceal his rage as he described Mr Jenrick’s allegation as “simply not true”.
Tory leadership hopeful Mr Jenrick faces calls to apologise and withdraw his claim. He has been accused of putting lives in danger after making the extraordinary allegation in a social media video.
Mr Tugendhat, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, made clear he was furious the video of his deceased friend had been used. BBC Newsnight presenter Victoria Derbyshire told him: “You sound quietly furious.”
Mr Tugendhat said: “How would you feel if a friend of yours who died a few years after the film was taken was being included in an accusation that would be – were he to be responsible for it, which let me be absolutely clear he would not and did not do – in an accusation that would be against the values and standards of the Armed Forces?”
3. ‘Lock up thousands of civil servants’ call
Ms Badenoch was rapped after a “below the belt” claim that thousands of civil servants should be jailed. The Shadow Housing Secretary sparked a backlash after saying between 5% and 10% of civil servants are “should-be-in-prison bad”.
This would mean between 25,000 and 50,000 were put behind bars, in spite of the prison space crisis the Tories left behind. Unions said Ms Badenoch – who has previously been accused of bullying Whitehall workers – is using public servants as “vote fodder”.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Tory Party Conference, the right-winger whined: “There’s about 5-10% of them (civil servants) who are very, very bad. You know, should-be-in-prison bad.
“Leaking official secrets, undermining their ministers … agitating. I had some of it in my department, usually union-led, but most of them actually want to do a good job. And the good ones are very frustrated by the bad ones.”
4. Fierce jibe over Badenoch’s ‘needless drama’
In his first major speech after making the final two, Mr Jenrick took a swipe at Ms Badenoch- saying the Tories need a leader who doesn’t get “drawn down rabbit holes” or spend time doing “battle on Twitter”.
The leadership hopeful told an audience the parties need “a serious plan, not needless drama” as he claimed he could bring years of feuding to an end. It comes after Ms Badenoch became embroiled in a number of high profile spats with figures including Dr Who star David Tennant and fellow Tory Suella Braverman.
He said: “They (the public) need to see that we are laser focused on what they really care about, not getting drawn down rabbit holes.” And in another barbed reference to his competitor he said: “We exist to serve our country in government, not to do battle on Twitter.”
5. Suspected voting blunder sees favourite knocked out
It was universally felt that the Tory leadership contender who had the best party conference was James Cleverly. After wiping the floor with his rivals in the final round of speeches and saying the key to turning around the party’s fortunes was to “be more normal”, Mr Cleverly was the overwhelming bookies’ favourite.
He had the highest polling rating among the wider public and was the bookies’ favourite to win. But incredibly in the final round of voting by Tory MPs his support fell away, despite having come top 24 the day before.
The reason? This varies according to who you talk to, but it’s suspected that individual Cleverly supporters switched votes in a bid to give him an easier ride in the final two, assuming he was safe.
And these people ran the country for 14 years.
6. Spat over whether contenders should actually have policies
One of the oddest disagreements between the final two was on whether they should be putting forward ideas at this stage.
Mr Jenrick said in an interview that it was “disrespectful” for Ms Badenoch not to spell out what her policies would be. Lashing out at a lack of a clear vision, he said: “I believe you have to start with principles and values, but I think that is not enough. You also have to have policies.”
But Ms Badenoch said: “If this was a general election, yes, it would be wrong to be standing with no policies. This is not a general election.”
7. ‘Former colonies should pay us for ending slavery’
This was from former Cabinet member Sir Jacob Ress-Mogg. Although he lost his seat at the General Election in July, Mr Jenrick has said he would install Sir Jacob as party chairman if he wins.
The former Business Secretary sparked fury during the debate about whether the UK should pay reparations over its colonial past and role in the slave trade. It comes amid calls from Commonwealth leaders for the UK to apologise and start negotiations over payments.
Sir Jacob responded: “They ought to pay us for ending slavery, it is not something any other country had done and we were motivated by Christian charity.”
8. Live TV debate torpedoed by Tory HQ
Given the importance of the leader of the opposition post, many might have expected a head-to-head debate at some point.
But no, Tory HQ was having none of it. Although both Ms Badenoch and Mr Jenrick took part in a show on GB News, they were interviewed seperately.
The BBC had tried to pull together a televised debate between the duo. But as political editor Chris Mason revealed, the party headquarters scuppered it.
He wrote: “The Tories have stipulated that any official event must have a studio audience made up of people who have a vote in the contest – in other words, Conservative Party members.
“The BBC has said that the audience ‘must be compliant with the BBC’s duties as a public service broadcaster, which are not the same as for a party event’. The Conservative Party also wanted to charge £10 per ticket for the event.
“The BBC said it could not could not charge licence fee payers to attend a BBC programme.”
9. Tory MP claims Badenoch ‘too preoccupied’ with her children
Veteran Tory MP Sir Christopher Chope rightly came under fire after claiming Ms Badenoch is unsuitable to become Tory leader because she’s “preoccupied with her own children”.
The comments were branded “insulting” and “offensive” as MPs from different political parties reacted with uproar. The MP said he was backing Robert Jenrick to become the Conservative party’s new leader before ranting about Ms Badenoch spending “a lot of time with her family” – despite Mr Jenrick having three kids himself.
Sir Christopher then added: “You can’t spend all your time with your family as at the same time being Leader of the Opposition.”
10. Boris Johnson ‘shouldn’t have been fined for disobeying own rules’
It’s no secret that despite his multitude of sins, Boris Johnson is still popular with Tory Party members.
So Ms Badenoch wisely decided to try to exonerate him after the Met Police fined him for breaking Covid restrictions. She said: “The biggest thing I hated was the fixed penalty notices. That we were creating new criminal behaviour on what was everyday activity granted in exceptional circumstances.
“If we didn’t, you know, if Boris did not bring in those fixed penalty notices, he would not have had the Partygate scandal, certainly not to the extent that it was, because he then got caught in a trap that he had set for himself”.
11. Jenrick’s odd homage to Margaret Thatcher
The leadership contender threw some red meat to members at the party confrence in Birmingham by revealing his daughter’s middle name is Thatcher. He voiced his admiration for the Iron Lady, saying he lives in a home filled with “strong women”.
Describing his daughter, Mr Jenrick said: “She was born the year that Margaret Thatcher died. As you know, I respect strong women. In fact, everyone is female at my house.
“I’ve got three daughters, my wife and two dogs, who are both female. I thought it was a good way of reminding her of a great Prime Minister.”
12. …Moments before he makes basic history blunder
Mr Jenrick used his keynote speech to hail Mrs Thatcher’s 1974 leadership election win. Speaking 50 years later, he said: “In that year, in that momentous year for my family, 1974, our party made a big decision.
“We chose to change. We chose to change our leadership, to change our policies. We chose to reject defeatism. We reignited our confidence by looking again at all the and saying loudly what this party stands for and the choices we made that year, 1974, led our party to victory in 1979.”
The problem? The leadership race actually happened in 1975.
13. Questions over Jenrick’s mystery donor
Mr Jenrick squirmed under questioning over tens of thousands in cash donated by a company with no employees.
The Spott Fitness Ltd handed three payments totalling £75,000 to Mr Jenrick during July. But quizzed about the reason for the donations – or even the identity of the person behind them – on Sky News, Mr Jenrick gave evasive answers.
“As I understand it, this is a fitness company that operates in the UK. It’s a perfectly legal and valid donation under British law, and we’ve set it out in the public domain in the way as one does with donations,” he said. Host Trevor Philips replied: “Sorry, when you say ‘as I understand it’…somebody’s wanged you £75,000 and you don’t really know who they are?”
14. ‘Bobby J’ makes unfortunate sex act cap gaffe
Robert Jenrick’s campaign spent the Tory Party Conference distributing hats featuring a very rude slogan – which appears to demand a sex act.
It all started when the Tory leadership front runner’s team decided to start calling him “Bobby J”. But it appears nobody at the campaign looked up the slang meaning of the term – which online swearing website Urban Dictionary say refers to a sex act
15. Jenrick suggests cull of Tory MPs
Robert Jenrick’s crusade against the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) would see him purge MPs who aren’t on board, it emerged this week.
The former Immigration Minister said he would make quitting the measure – making the UK an outlier like Russia and Belarus – would be a manifesto pledge. Asked if those who voted against leaving would lose the whip, he told BBC’s Westminster Hour: “Well, there won’t be a vote on that whilst we are in opposition.
“But if we were lucky enough to win the next general election, then this would be part of our manifesto. So yes, it would be Conservative Party policy, and those choosing to stand at the election would have to support it, as they do any other important policy that’s part of the manifesto…”
