James Cleverly was favourite to take over as Conservative Party leader before his shock failure to make it to the final ballot.
The shadow home secretary was eliminated from the contest by Tory MPs, losing out to Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick who made the final two.
Mr Cleverly had impressed his colleagues during a strong performance at the party conference in Birmingham in October and was the first MP to declare his candidacy.
He said he was running to “restore the confidence of the British people in us as a party” and “re-establish our reputation” as a party that “helps grow the economy, helps people achieve their goals, their dreams and their aspirations”.
But what do we know about the shadow home secretary?
Who is James Cleverly?
Although an old ally of Boris Johnson and backer of short-lived PM Liz Truss, Mr Cleverly was also able to continue his cabinet career under Rishi Sunak.
Before he was made home secretary last November he was foreign secretary under Liz Truss and then Mr Sunak from September 2022. He served as Home Secretary from November 2023 to July 2024 when the Tories lost power at the general election.
Before that he was a short-lived education secretary under Boris Johnson and Ms Truss.
Asked before the previous Tory leadership result if he would take the foreign secretary job, should it be offered to him, he replied simply: “Who wouldn’t accept it?”
Prior to entering the cabinet, he had ministerial roles at the Cabinet Office, the Foreign Office, and the now-defunct Department for Exiting the European Union.
She’s been a great friend to Susie and I, she’s been a great Foreign Secretary, and she will be a great Prime Minister.
— James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) September 6, 2022
Congratulations @trussliz pic.twitter.com/BaSdU8aIMz
Mr Cleverly, the son of a midwife and a businessman, was born in Lewisham Hospital, in south-east London where his mother worked.
He spent much of his childhood with his family in Chelmsford, Essex, and joined the army when he left school. But his soldiering ambitions hit the rocks when injury struck and he returned to education to get a business degree.
He also signed up for the Territorial Army, where he has served for about 20 years.
Mr Cleverly is married to Susie and is a father-of-two. He had a career in magazine and digital publishing, and says he worked on a number of “market-leading titles” before setting up his own company.
He ventured into the world of politics with an unsuccessful bid to serve on Lewisham council in 2002. He also stood for the Lewisham East parliamentary seat in 2005 but lost out to Labour.
Mr Cleverly was elected to the London Assembly as the member for Bexley and Bromley in 2008 and later replaced Mr Johnson as chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board.
In 2012, the former PM, then Mayor of London, made him chairman of the London Fire Authority.
Mr Cleverly stepped down from that role in 2015 after being selected to run for parliament at the next general election, and secured his Braintree seat for the first time that year.
He joined the Tory leadership race to replace Theresa May in 2019 but pulled out, saying his fellow MPs were not comfortable with the idea of picking a “relatively new” colleague.
He had been an ardent supporter of Ms Truss, introducing her to the stage at the first official hustings with Tory members in Leeds, and suggesting in the wake of her victory that the public will “warm” to her over time.
James Cleverly Controversies
In 2015, shortly after he was elected an MP, Mr Cleverly admitted having smoked cannabis at university and watching online porn.
In an interview for John Pienaar’s Backbencher’s Questions on BBC Radio 5 Live, the MP for Braintree, answered “yes” when asked whether he had watched online porn or ever done drugs.
“I had a little dabble with marijuana at university,” he said. Asked if he inhaled, he added: “Of course, that’s the point, to paraphrase Obama. I don’t recommend it, it’s a waste of money, waste of time and just not very good for your future prospects.”
In December he faced calls to resign as home secretary after making jokes about spiking his wife’s drink with the date rape drug Rohypnol at a Downing Street reception.
Mr Cleverly apologised for the remarks, made just hours after the Home Office announced plans to crackdown on the crime of putting drugs into another person’s drink or directly into their body without their knowledge or consent.
What roles did James Cleverly have in government?
- First elected as the Conservative MP for Braintree in May 2015
- Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Exiting the European Union - April 2019 to July 2019
- Minister without Portfolio - July 2019 to February 2020
- Joint Minister of State for Middle East and North Africa in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development - from February 2020
- Minister for Middle East, North Africa and North America - September 2020 to February 2022
- Minister of State for Europe and North America in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office - February 2022 to July 2022
- Secretary of State for Education - July 2022 to September 2022
- Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs - September 2022 to November 2023
- Secretary of State for the Home Department - November 2023 to July 2024
