The full list of Conservative leadership candidates has been published after Monday afternoon’s deadline passed. Six MPs will be running in the three-month-long contest to succeed Rishi Sunak.
Four will be shortlisted by MPs in September and given the chance to make their pitch at the Conservative party conference and in the weeks leading up to it. MPs will then narrow down the list to two candidates, and grassroots members will elect their next leader in early November.
Suella Braverman, who has long been angling for the leadership, announced this weekend that she would not be standing because the majority of Tory MPs did not share her views – though she claimed she had the 10 backers needed to make it on to the ballot paper.
The Guardian takes a look at the six runners and riders who have unveiled their bids.
Tom Tugendhat
A Tory centrist, Tugendhat was made security minister in Rishi Sunak’s government after a strong run for the Conservative party leadership in the summer of 2022. His pitch then was that he was untainted by the Johnson government’s chaotic administration.
A former reserve officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tugendhat became an MP in 2015 and built up a profile on foreign policy issues. He was chair of the foreign affairs select committee between 2017 and 2022 and has been notably hawkish on China.
When launching his leadership pitch, Tugendhat suggested he was open to pulling the UK out of the European convention on human rights, which was dismissed by some as an attempt to pitch for rightwing votes. He voted to remain in the EU in 2016.
Odds: Ladbrokes 5-1. William Hill 4-1.
Mel Stride
A staunch Sunak loyalist, Stride’s frequent media appearances made him the face of the Conservative campaign in the run-up to the election disaster. By the end of it he was warning that Labour was on track for a huge victory – and on election night he clung on to his Central Devon seat by just 61 votes.
Now running for the Conservative leadership, Stride has put unity at the centre of his pitch and pointed to his experience in roles that involve bringing people together, including Treasury select committee chair and Commons leader. He first became an MP in 2010 and backed remain in 2016.
Odds: Ladbrokes 28-1, William Hill 20-1.
James Cleverly
The first candidate to come out of the blocks, Cleverly has pointed to his extensive experience as a senior minister. He has served as home secretary and foreign secretary in the Sunak and Truss governments, and was education secretary and Conservative chair under Boris Johnson. He first became an MP in 2015.
Under successive prime ministers Cleverly was often trusted with taking the government’s message to the airwaves. He is pitching himself as a centrist with broad appeal, though he has taken a swipe at the right of his party by warning against “sacrificing pragmatic government in the national interest on the altar of ideological purity”. He backed Brexit in 2016.
Odds: Ladbrokes, 6-1, William Hill 9-2.
Kemi Badenoch
Badenoch’s well-established campaign operation and popularity with grassroots members have made her the favourite in this contest. This is her second tilt at the leadership; she came fourth in the race to succeed Johnson in the summer of 2022.
In government, where she served as business secretary and minister for women and equalities, she has made a name for herself on gender and culture war issues, including by calling for a change to the Equality Act so that sex is defined only as someone’s biological sex. She has also become known for her combative style.
Launching her campaign on Sunday night, Badenoch argued that calls for party unity were not enough and that the Conservatives’ “incoherent” set of policies were to blame for their election defeat. She pledged to rebuild the party by 2030 and respond to Reform UK’s threat from the right. She backed Brexit in 2016 and was first elected in 2017.
Odds: Ladbrokes 7-4, William Hill 15-8.
Robert Jenrick
Once billed as a run-of-the-mill centrist Conservative MP – so much so that he was nicknamed “Robert Generic” – he has transformed into the darling of the Tory right, supplanting Braverman and mopping up many of her supporters.
That transformation is especially remarkable given Jenrick was said to have been installed by Sunak as a minister in the Home Office to keep an eye on Braverman. He soon gave up this unofficial role and began deploying increasingly hardline rhetoric as immigration minister until he quit last December, calling on Sunak to take a tougher line.
Jenrick is now expected to put immigration at the heart of his campaign. He backed remain in 2016.
Odds: Ladbrokes 5-2, William Hill 11-4.
Priti Patel
Arguably the most rightwing candidate in the race, Patel has vowed to give grassroots members a greater say in how their party is run. Part of her pitch is that she has served in government under three prime ministers but is not associated with the Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak governments.
First elected as an MP in 2010, Patel was international development secretary under Theresa May and home secretary under Johnson. She was sacked by May over unauthorised meetings with Israeli ministers while on a trip to the country. She weathered bullying allegations in the Home Office – where a Cabinet Office inquiry found she had “unintentionally” breached the ministerial code in her behaviour towards civil servants – and quit when Johnson left Downing Street.
As home secretary Patel launched a points-based immigration system, signed the agreement with Rwanda to process UK asylum seekers there, and agreed returns deals with Albania and Serbia. She backed Brexit in 2016 and was a prominent figure in Vote Leave.
Odds: Ladbrokes and William Hill, 8-1.
