Tory leadership race: Priti Patel is out. Could Robert Jenrick replace Rishi Sunak as the next leader?

Former United Kingdom Cabinet minister Priti Patel is out of the race for the next Conservative leader after the first round of voting. Now, five more contenders remain, with Robert Jenrick topping the poll of Tory MPs.

He led with 28 votes, followed by the bookies’ favourite Kemi Badenoch who got 22 votes. Shadow home secretary James Cleverly was third with 21 votes, Tom Tugendhat was fourth with 17 and Mel Stride stood fifth with 16. Patel managed to secure only 14 votes.

Tory members will keep voting in the coming weeks until only two candidates remain. The wider party membership will then pick one of them as the next leader. The contest for the Conservative leadership was necessitated after ex-UK PM Rishi Sunak resigned in July in the wake of the party’s worst general election result.

Could Robert Jenrick be the one to replace Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party? Let’s take a closer look.

Who is Robert Jenrick?

Jenrick is known for his over a year-long tenure as Sunak’s immigration minister before he quit the post over the then PM’s emergency Rwanda plan.

In his resignation letter last year, Jenrick told the then PM that he did not believe this legislation provided “us with the best possible chances of success” in getting Rwanda flights to take off, reported Independent.

Jenrick, who began his political career as a centrist figure, has transformed into a hardliner. He entered politics as the Newark MP in 2014.

This change has courted criticism including from Anna Soubry, the former Tory MP, who told The Guardian that Jenrick “trims his sails to suit whichever political wind is blowing within the Conservative Party”.

Once a close ally of former PM Sunak, Jenrick has spoken about his party’s “failure” to fulfil its promise of reducing immigration when it was in power, as per BBC.

He has also been at the forefront of demanding that the UK withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. He has said he had been “pushing for the strongest possible” bill that would put “national interests above highly contested interpretations of international law”.

The 42-year-old previously served as a corporate lawyer and director of auction house Christie’s.

Jenrick has been embroiled in a series of controversies. In 2020, as housing secretary, he rejected a planning decision that resulted in benefitting newspaper magnate Richard Desmond, a Tory donor, as per The Telegraph.

He apparently broke lockdown rules by travelling to his parents’ home in Shropshire.

Last month, Jenrick stirred uproar with his remarks that people shouting “Allahu Akbar” on London streets “should be arrested immediately”, reported Independent.

Other Tory contenders

Badenoch, who was the second favourite in the first round of voting, worked in banking and IT before joining politics. She held ministerial positions under the prime ministerial tenures of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, as per BBC.

Badenoch’s Tory leadership pitch is that the Conservative Party needed to “stop acting like Labour” to return to power. UK PM Keir Starmer earlier described her as the “favourite” in the Tory leadership race, reported Independent.

Former home secretary Cleverly has said he wants to “unite” the Tories and has urged the party to “think and act like Conservatives again”, reported BBC. He was the first contender to formally launch a leadership bid after Sunak stepped down.

Seen as a “moderate”, Cleverly has also served as UK’s foreign secretary. He has defended the Sunak government’s Rwanda plan and promised to bring it back if he becomes the PM.

Ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat is widely considered a centrist. However, to woo the party’s right wing MPs, he has taken a hard line on immigration. Tugendhat had unsuccessfully contested for the Tory leadership two years back, with Liz Truss emerging as the winner.

Mel Stride, a staunch Sunak ally, launched his Tory leadership bid saying the party needed to “build trust with the electorate again”. He currently serves as the shadow work and pensions secretary and, as per BBC, is the least well-known figure among the public compared to the other four contenders.

Can Jenrick win?

After the first round of voting, Jenrick has emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Sunak as the Tory leader.

Jenrick’s tough stance on immigration can earn him brownie points with the Tory Right, including MPs once loyal to his former boss at the Home Office, Suella Braverman, noted BBC.

His supporters have expressed confidence he is ‘nailed on’ to reach the final two. “While he still needs to gain more support, this result will add to the sense that Jenrick is a serious contender,” according to The Spectator.

Jenrick and Badenoch could benefit from Patel’s support base of the Tory Right.

The next Conservative leader is likely to be known on 2 November.

With inputs from agencies