Tory members measure up leadership finalists

After weeks of voting by Tory MPs, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are through to the final round of the Conservative Party leadership contest – and fleeting frontrunner James Cleverly is out.

Now the future of the party rests with its members, who will vote for they believe can restore Tory fortunes after their drubbing in this year’s general election.

Reacting to Wednesday’s result, members who spoke to the BBC were either unsure or tentative about who to back.

They’ve got the best part of a month to make up their minds before voting closes and the winner is declared on 2 November.

Sarah Whalley-Hoggins is one of an estimated 140,000 Conservative members who will have a say in the ballot.

The Conservative opposition leader on Stratford-on-Avon District Council, she’s leaning towards Jenrick.

She said his resignation as immigration minister over the Rwanda scheme last year “shows a man of principle”.

But she added that the party needed to make sweeping changes – including reforming its selection processes – before it can seriously challenge to win general elections again.

“I’m not choosing the candidate for the next prime minister,” she said. “I’m choosing the candidate that’s going to sort out this once-great party of ours.

“That to me is very important, or we’re never going to win another general election.”

Ed Costelloe, chairman of Grassroots Conservatives, said he was surprised James Cleverly did not make it to the vote of members.

Polling suggests Bachnoch is the favourite to take the crown, he said, but added: “When you listen to ordinary members who have never been polled, there’s more open-mindedness.”

Mr Costelloe said he was personally leaning towards Badenoch.

“Kemi Badenoch is the sort of person who can stand up and in a sense, become more presidential. I suspect that she will win.

“She will make a few failings of course. But also I suspect she will mould herself on Maggie Thatcher, say she’s going to get things done, and people will probably believe her.”

James Hawkes, a member of the Young Conservatives from Hull, said housing will be a big issue for him and others his age.

“We need a candidate who’s willing to build more houses,” he said.

He lamented Cleverly’s exit, which “might not be the best” for the party.

Badenoch, Mr Hawkes said, “appeals too much to the Reform-ist rightwing and it just won’t work”.

Mr Hawkes said Jenrick has the right balance, adding he can appeal “more to the right and left of the party on a range of issues”.

John Strafford, veteran campaigner for greater grassroots democracy in the party, said the system currently used for choosing leaders is an “absolute disaster”.

He argues that the final four should have been put to a vote of the membership after they had delivered their speeches at last week’s party conference, rather than being whittled down to two by the MPs.

Under the current system, which was brought in by former leader William Hague, the best candidate does not necessarily win, argues Mr Strafford, who chairs the Conservative Democratic Organisation.

“The whole thing is manipulated. Bribery takes place. The MPs will only vote on the basis of ‘what’s in it for me?’ They are looking for jobs, titles and honours. It’s a terrible way in which to do things.”

He is campaigning for leadership contests to be taken out of the hands of the 1922 committee of backbenchers, which he says keep changing the rules, and put into a new party constitution.

Richard Lewington, who chairs the Madrid branch of Conservatives Abroad, shared Mr Strafford’s unhappiness with the MPs getting to choose the final two, saying: “It should be a membership-led selection process.”

He had been part of Tom Tugendhat’s leadership campaign, he said, and has not decided who to vote for, adding that other members of his organisation were “split” and still wondering about who to back.

But he said Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick were both “excellent choices” who would help the party win back support from Reform UK.

“They are very similar in their philosophies, very much to the right of the party,” he told the BBC.

“This is where the party needs to go,” he added, arguing that it was “not right enough” at this year’s general election, and needed to get back to “common sense policies” and “small government”.

Reflecting on the surprise rejection of James Cleverly, who he described as a “continuity” candidate, he said: “It seems that the Parliamentary Conservative Party want to break away from the norm.”