James Cleverly rules out frontbench role under new Tory leader

Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly has said he will not accept a frontbench role from the next leader of the Conservative Party, when they are unveiled on Saturday.

The two contenders Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick are expected to carry out an immediate reshuffle of the top Tory team.

But Cleverly has told the Financial Times he will return to the backbenches rather than serve in either candidate’s shadow cabinet.

Cleverly had been the frontrunner in the race to replace Rishi Sunak but was knocked out in a surprise vote by MPs at the start of October.

He explained he had been “liberated” from 16 years on the political frontline and now was “not particularly in the mood to be boxed back into a narrow band again”.

Cleverly shot to the front of the pack of leadership candidates after a well-received speech at the Conservative Party conference in September.

However, his support unexpectedly fell away in the last round as MPs moved their votes around in an attempt to get the final line-up they wanted.

Cleverly admitted the result was a “bit of a punch to the gut” as he had repeatedly warned his backers that “Kremlinology is a fool’s game” – but supporters kept asking who he would prefer to go up against.

When Badenoch and Jenrick topped the poll, both hinted they could give him positions in their shadow cabinet if they became leader.

Badenoch said Cleverly’s campaign had been “full of energy, ideas and optimism” and she looked forward to “continuing to work with him”.

Her rival Jenrick told Cleverly the party “needs you in its top team in the years ahead”, adding he’d be “delighted for him to serve in the shadow cabinet should he want to do so”.

Jenrick has made leaving the European Court of Human rights (ECHR) a key plank of his leadership offer, saying all Tory MPs would need to sign up to the policy – but Cleverly has rejected the idea.

But a stint on the backbenches seems unlikely to last forever and Cleverly has left the door open to a future bid to become leader of the Conservative Party, saying he wouldn’t “rule anything in or anything out”.

Nor did he rule out the idea of a bid to become the Mayor of London in 2028, adding: “We do need to fight back in London. We need to fight back in big, big, big chunks of the country.”