Tories must focus on their renewal, warns Badenoch

The Tories are set to enter a crucial phase of their leadership contest with a warning that they will need to do a lot more than just criticise Labour, even if it is fun”.

- DAVID MADDOX

At one of two leadership bids officially launches today, Kemi Badenoch will claim that the party needs to focus on its own renewal after the worst defeat in its history.

Meanwhile, rival James Cleverly will launch his own bid with an apparent nod to the right of his party suggesting that Tories “need to be Conservative again”.

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat will launch his bid tomorrow while former home secretary Priti Patel promised to democratise the party when she launched her campaign on Friday.

A similar pledge was made by Robert Jenrick, now seen as the champion of the party’s right, at his second launch in Westminster yesterday after one in his Newark constituency at the beginning of the summer.

He also made a pitch to renew the party saying he wanted to create “a new Conservative Party” out of the wreckage of the record defeat it suffered in July.

The sixth candidate, former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, is now the strong favourite to be eliminated in the first vote by MPs on Wednesday. One more candidate will be lost next week with the final four entering “a beauty contest” at the party conference in October. MPs will then reduce the number to two for party members to choose from.

In her campaign speech today, Ms Badenoch will lash out at Labour and call for change in the Conservative Party as she launches her Tory leadership campaign in Westminster.