Tory leadership race – live: Priti Patel ‘to run’ amid calls for Sunak to stay on until November
Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
Priti Patel is reportedly making a bid to become the Conservative Party leader, as the race accelerates to replace Rishi Sunak following his crippling election defeat.
The former home secretary is expected to make a formal announcement later this week, The Telegraph reports. According to the paper, she has already assembled a campaign team funded by “high-profile” Tory donors.
This week former deputy foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell urged the Tory party to avoid an interim leader, saying the best option would be for Rishi Sunak to remain in place until November.
He said the former prime minister’s instinct will almost certainly be to go but that the 1922 Committee meeting showed “widespread feelings of sympathy and respect for Rishi Sunak”.
Another possible Tory leadership race contender on the party’s right is Kemi Badenoch, while James Cleverly, Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat and Victoria Atkins are among more moderate figures who could launch bids.
Priti Patel to run for Tory leadership – reports
Priti Patel is reportedly making a bid to become the Conservative Party leader after being “urged to run” by her colleagues.
The former home secretary is expected to make a formal announcement later this week, The Telegraph reported, adding that she has already assembled a campaign team funded by “high-profile” Tory donors.
A source close to her told the paper: “Priti has kept a low profile and done her best to support others, she feels colleagues also need time to digest the general election result and don’t want posturing in the media from prospective candidates.
“She has quietly put a team together, as many colleagues from different sides of the party have over the past week urged her to run and she now has key MP supporters and campaign staff in place including some high profile Conservative donors.”
The Telegraph reported that unlike her fellow right-wing MP, Suella Braverman, her colleagues believe Ms Patel has the ability to unite the party as they pick up the pieces from their general election defeat.
![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/05/07/8a0b63377ded4ba51ce8b713fa91b9f0Y29udGVudHNlYXJjaGFwaSwxNzIwMDk1Mjcz-2.75139988.jpg)
Athena Stavrou16 July 2024 22:48
Tory treasurer who gave party £5m quits role days after election defeat
Sir Mohamed Mansour, the senior treasurer of the Conservative Party, announced on Saturday he was resigning from his post 10 days after Rishi Sunak’s election defeat.
The Egyptian-born billionaire had donated £5m to the party and had been a key player in raising other funds. His donation was the biggest for the Conservatives since 2001.
He told The Independent: “I have been honoured to serve my country and party since December 2022 and it has been a privilege to do so.
“Rishi Sunak has announced his intention to depart as party leader, and it makes sense for me to also step down at this time. A new leadership team will bring fresh talent and thinking to the task ahead: guiding the party on its path of renewal.”
Andy Gregory16 July 2024 21:01
Tories received £50,000 donation from business linked to convicted billionaire
The Conservatives received £50,000 in the dying days of the election campaign from a company linked to a billionaire who has been jailed for exploiting his domestic staff, Electoral Commission figures show.
Figures published on Monday show Westminster Development Services, a consortium responsible for redeveloping the Old War Office on Whitehall into a Raffles hotel, made the donation to the Tories on July 1.
According to Companies House, Westminster Development Services is up to 50% owned by AMC Project Services, which itself lists Prakash Hinduja, the chairman of the Hinduja Group and one of Britain’s richest men, as its owner.
Some 10 days earlier, on June 21, Hinduja and three members of his family had been jailed by a Swiss court after being convicted of exploiting domestic workers at their mansion in Geneva.
Christopher McKeon has the full report:
Andy Gregory16 July 2024 18:15
Tom Tugendhat to announce Tory leadership bid within weeks, report suggests
Tom Tugendhat – who came fifth in the race to succed Boris Johnson in 2022 – has found widespread report for a Tory leadership bid and is expected to announce his campaign within weeks, a new report claims.
A campaign team established by the shadow security minister and comprising current and former Tory MPs has been impressed to discover a broad base of goodwill from across the party during initial soundings among MP colleagues, The Telegraph reports.
“There is an early embryonic organisation, taking soundings about who would support him,” one senior Tory told the outlet, while another insider jibed that Mr Tugendhat’s nascent campaign was “the worst kept secret in Westminster”.
Andy Gregory16 July 2024 16:31
Top Tory calls for Rishi Sunak to stay as party leader until November as succession battle looms
Maryam Zakir-Hussain16 July 2024 14:49
Rishi Sunak hit by mass strike of Tory MPs before surprise snap election
Rishi Sunak was warned he was losing his grip on his own MPs after he was hit by a mass strike in the last days of his premiership.
In a sign of the pressure Mr Sunak was under before he shocked Westminster by calling a snap general election, the then prime minister was told the situation was unsustainable.
On a single day Conservative whips received a request from around 200 Tory MPs – well over half of the parliamentary party – to be slipped, or excused from voting, a former senior Downing Street insider said.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain16 July 2024 13:07
Tory grandee urges against lurch to extreme right in leadership battle
The Conservative Party needs to avoid a lurch to the “extreme right” as it tries to rebuild itself from its worst ever defeat, a former party chair has warned.
Chris Patten, who was chair for the successful 1992 general election campaign where he also lost his seat, has raised concerns that the Tories will try to ape Nigel Farage as it seeks to win back supporters.
Writing for The Independent, the Tory grandee, who was also Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong, labelled two of the potential contenders Priti Patel and Suella Braverman as “extreme right” and described Farage as “Tommy Robinson in a cravat” as he urged for the party to take time over its reset.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain16 July 2024 11:29
Shadow veterans minister says Sunak should remain Tory leader until November
Shadow veterans minister Andrew Bowie has said Rishi Sunak should stay on as Conservative Party leader until November.
Asked if he agreed with shadow foreign secretary Andrew Mitchell that the former prime minister should continue to act as party leader until November, Mr Bowie told Sky News: “I think it’s important that there is some stability at the top of the Conservative Party as we determine how and the length of the leadership election that we’re about to undertake.
“And Rishi gives us that certainty, gives us that continuity, and I hope he finds within himself to carry on whilst we get our house in order and select who is to succeed him and lead us into the next election in four or five years.
He added: “Yes, from my perspective, I think he should stay.”
Asked if the party should move to the right, Mr Bowie said: “Absolutely not, I mean, that’s for the party members to decide who the leader is going to be, but I think that the Conservative Party does better when it commands the centre ground.
“That’s where we have done better traditionally, and that’s where we command most support in the country when we do so. So it’s not for me to determine where the party goes, that’s for Members of Parliament in general, and indeed, the party membership.”
![](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/07/16/07/Screenshot-2024-07-16-at-07.17.49.jpg)
Maryam Zakir-Hussain16 July 2024 08:52
Who will be the next Tory leader? All the front runners ranked, from Priti Patel to Suella Braverman
Here we look at some of the remaining runners and riders:
Maryam Zakir-Hussain16 July 2024 07:00
MP lives endangered by a ‘concerted campaign by extremists’, UK political violence advisor warns
John Woodcock, a former Labour MP, who now sits in the House of Lords as Baron Walney, also suggested there could have been a “concerted campaign by extremists”.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain16 July 2024 04:30
Source link