The party who gave us Liz Truss selected Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick as their final two contenders
The longwinded Conservative leadership race has heated up with the shock knockout of James Cleverly and more Tory mess.
The result is likely to go down well with Labour, as he was considered the most ‘normal’ of the final three candidates.
The result was met which gasps in Parliament after he topped the ballot of MPs in the third round on Tuesday.
Mr Cleverly lost out on his chance at the prize after receiving 37 votes from his colleagues, falling behind the hard-right Kemi Badenoch on 42 and Robert Jenrick on 41.
Speaking on The Division Bell podcast, Lizzy Buchan said: “When James cleverly went out yesterday, I immediately got several messages saying ‘this is brilliant, the more normal ones gone’.
“This is a great result for [for Labour] because Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch are both sort of scrapping in a similar area that they’re more to the right party than James Cleverly was.
“And Tom Tugendhat, despite his protestations that he was right wing, no one really believed him. I think the government seemed quite pleased about that.”
Mr Cleverly was expected to cruise through to the final two, but MPs rallied around the most right-wing candidates in the final round of voting.
Lizzy said: “ It’s absolute classic Tory mess. The conspiracy theories going round as well about how James Cleverly suddenly went straight into the lead then lost votes again, how Robert Jenrick had been in the lead before and then suddenly lost votes.
“Obviously there was some vote lending going on, but whoever was doing it didn’t have control of their numbers. I’ve heard so many different theories about whether it’s people going rogue, whether it’s Kemi’s camp and Robert Jenrick trying to get the other one off the ballot paper.”
“But whatever happens, I found it very funny that James Cleverly have a much better speech than the other and the overwhelming message was, ‘we need to be more normal, that’s how we’re going to win the next election,’ and Tory MPs said no to that.”
The leadership race has shown more signs of Tory mess, as the two remaining hopefuls have been embroiled in squabbles.
Robert Jenrick delivered asavage digat Kemi Badenoch – saying the Tories need a leader who doesn’t get “drawn down rabbit holes” or spend time doing “battle on Twitter “.
He told an audience the parties need “a serious plan, not needless drama” as he claimed he could bring years of feuding to an end. Ms Badenoch has been involved in a number of high profile spats with figures including Dr Who star David Tennant and fellow Tory Suella Braverman .
The lengthy leadership race will end on the 2 November, with the votes now in the hands of Conservative Party members who subjected the country to the chaos of Liz Truss.
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