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The first rift has opened between Tory leadership candidates in the race to replace Rishi Sunak after a subtle dig made by the Robert Jenrick campaign against rival Kemi Badenoch.
With Ms Badenoch launching her “Renewal 2030” leadership campaign on Monday she has been forced to defend taking a holiday during the summer when a hustings for the north of England was held.
Leadership contenders were warned at the start of the contest that there would be a yellow card for personal attacks on one another and the competition has so far been clean.
But at a briefing this morning a senior source in the Jenrick campaign made a point of saying he was “a hard worker” and did not take any holidays, without naming Ms Badenoch directly.
The opening remarks of the briefing said: “Hope you’ve had a good summer holiday. As you can see, this campaign doesn't take holidays. We've been out across the country having fun, meeting Conservative Party members. We've done dozens of events across the country. We've met literally thousands of members, been to all four nations, and been taking our message out across the country.”
Jenrick’s team is also bullish about his prospects and believes he is “nailed on” to make it to the final two after the party conference in early October for members to vote on.
“In terms of where the race is right now, we are very confident as a team that we have an absolute nailed on route to 41 votes and getting to the final two.
“Depending on exactly who votes, you need 40 or 41 votes. We are very confident that we have those votes and a clear path to achieving them. We’ve been working very hard with MPs. Our style has been to be as active as possible, to be as personal as possible, to be respectful and to listen to people’s concerns and to go and meet them in their constituencies over the course of the summer, and to try to build a broad coalition of people.”
While Mr Jenrick’s promise to leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) has solidified his support on the right he has also gained backers from the One Nation left of the Tories including shadow justice secretary Edward Argar.
Ms Badenoch used her campaign launch on Monday to take aim at rivals including Mr Jenrick, criticising his plans to leave the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) and cap spiralling net migration.
She said candidates putting targets on net immigration and promising to leave the ECHR are “giving easy answers”.
“It’s not just about throwing out numbers and throwing out targets,” she added.
But a rival camp hit back, criticising Ms Badenoch for attacking Dr Who, going on holiday during the campaign and refusing to set out plans to cap immigration.
“No wonder her campaign has written off the next general election,” a source said, in reference to her Renewal 2030 slogan.
Mr Jenrick and Ms Badenoch are seen as the primary rivals on the right of the party. They are up against former home secretary James Cleverly who is also launching his campaign today, another former home secretary Dame Priti Patel, former security minister Tom Tugendhat and former work and pensions secretary Mel Stride.
The winner will be announced on 2 November.
