Braverman shocks voters by exiting leadership race
By Connor Steel
SUELLA BRAVERMAN has confirmed that she won’t be running in the Conservative Party leadership race following an increase in speculation over recent weeks; the Fareham & Waterlooville MP writing that she’d been “branded mad, bad and dangerous” by people within the Tories in her exclusive newspaper article published just hours before the deadline.
The leadership contest was triggered by the post-election resignation of Rishi Sunak on July 5 and nominations shut at 2:30pm on Monday (July 5); thus ending a five day process to decide the list of candidates. Each person had to secure the full support of ten MPs from their party and submit application forms to the 1922 Committee before the cut-off point.
Ms Braverman was hotly tipped as a top favourite for leadership after campaigning in 2022 where she was fourth place in the contest to replace Boris Johnson. The MP has since taken on the role of Home Secretary twice and was recently rated highly in a party popularity poll for YouGov, whilst also being one of the 121 MPs to be elected in the last election.
But concerns were raised about her cabinet record as the Home Secretary / Attorney General, which saw two sackings in three months alongside controversy due to comments. This included the subjects of homelessness, policing and her speeches on immigration, leading to one party member calling her the Tory version of “Jeremy Corbyn” if voted Leader.
There are further divisions on how the party responds to their brutal election defeat after losing hundreds of candidates compared to their own landslide victory in 2019. Ms Braverman offered her full apologies to voters after she gained the new Fareham & Waterlooville constituency seat early on July 5, immediately saying: “sorry that my party let you down”.
Speaking after the election Ms Braverman stated that the election defeat was down to failures on migration, taxes, and transgender ideology; something that many of her colleagues disputed. And despite getting the support of the ten MPs, she decided that would “bow out” of this leadership race; the full newspaper article available to explore via her website.
This announcement came late on Sunday night and leaves a total of six names in the race; Priti Patel, Kemi Badenoch, Mel Stride, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, and James Cleverly. They will now have this summer parliamentary recess to offer their leadership case to fellow MPs and the Conservative Party membership before September 4 (Wednesday).
MPs will then carry out a series of votes to narrow down the field until four candidates are left; who will soon be a given a chance to speak directly at the party conference from September 29 to October 2. Two more ’rounds’ of MP votes will take place the following week, before the membership choose the winner via an online vote across a two week window.
The online votes will close on October 31 and the result is due to be announced on November 2 (Saturday); the winner becoming Leader of the Opposition from that point. It marks a longer than usual election process with a mix of debates and hustings across the country likely to take place; Mr Sunak remaining in this job position until this winner is decided.
The Conservative Party has further introduced a ‘yellow card’ penalty system in a bid to prevent all six candidates from attacking one another in the media. This was outlined on Monday by the 1922 Committee, Bob Blackman, as he stated that the punishments would be “extremely detrimental to their chances of getting elected” for those in the latest contest.
Readers are encouraged to explore media links like BBC News, Sky News and ITV News for fresh developing updates on this breaking story; which includes leadship profiles and quotes from all six remaining candidates within this contest.
PICTURED BY ALAMY (2XKGC5C): Suella Braverman presents ‘LBC’ programme in the studio last Tuesday (July 23).
