Robert Jenrick is outgunning his Tory leadership rivals with big donors after raking in £250,000 by the end of last month, while some other candidates are still short of the fundraising target required to stay in the race.
Jenrick raised the quarter of a million pounds by the end of August, while his nearest competitor, Kemi Badenoch, reached about £200,000.
Under the Conservative party’s “pay to play” rules, those who make it to the final four on Tuesday next week will have to hand £50,000 to the party. The two candidates who make it to the final round after the party’s conference in October will have to sign a further cheque for £150,000 to Conservative campaign headquarters.
The other three candidates were lagging behind Jenrick and Badenoch in fundraising by the end of August, James Cleverly bringing in just below £100,000, Tom Tugendhat £70,000, and Mel Stride just £30,000.
Tugendhat got £44,500 from a company called Blue WV, which was set up in November last year and is controlled by former No 10 special adviser Guy Miscampbell. Tugendhat’s team did not respond to questions about what the company does and whether Miscampbell is the ultimate source of the money.
Priti Patel, the sixth contender, who left the race this week, had raised more than £180,000, including £70,000 from major Tory donor Lubov Chernukhin, a businesswoman and wife of a former deputy finance minister in Putin’s Russia. She failed to win enough support from Conservative MPs and was eliminated.
The Conservative party has placed a big emphasis on the ability of candidates to raise funds, after being left with little money after the election.
One source in one of the leadership camps said the candidates had been forced to spend a lot of time drumming up donors but the next week would be “all about talking to colleagues” as another candidate will be eliminated on the basis of MP support.
After that, four candidates will give speeches at a party conference in early October, before the field is further whittled down to two.
Jenrick’s donors include a firm owned by the wife of former Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, which contributed £20,000, and £75,000 from a small company controlled by Mark Dembovsky, a lawyer and former chief executive of Doughty Chambers.
Kemi Badenoch’s major donors include £50,000 from a businessman, Charles Keymer, £10,000 from Conservative peer and economist Dambisa Moyo, and £10,000 from investor James Mellon.
Jenrick emerged as the surprise frontrunner among MPs on Wednesday after winning the support of 28 ahead of Badenoch, who won 22 votes, and Cleverly, who got 21.
Of the six candidates, Patel came last with 14 votes despite being the best-known candidate outside Westminster. She polled just behind Mel Stride, who got 16 votes, and Tom Tugendhat with 17 votes.
The results left Jenrick narrowly favourite with the bookmakers, but now much rides on the performance of the final four candidates at the Tory conference later this month. He has won support in Westminster by pitching to the right, especially on migration, despite his previous reputation as a centrist.
However, some of Priti Patel’s supporters are expected now to go to Badenoch, boosting her numbers. Maria Caulfield, a former Patel backer, said on Thursday that she would now be supporting Badenoch.
“Having worked with her in government, I know she recognises the changes we need to make as a party to return to our core values. It’s not about making promises to the country, it’s about delivering on those promises,” she said.
After Patel was eliminated, Jenrick said she had made an unarguable case that the structure of the Conservative party needed reform and to be further democratised.
