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Seven Conservative MPs have signalled they are hoping to stand in the Tory leadership election that will decide who succeeds Rishi Sunak.
Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch — seen as the frontrunner in the contest — and ex-home secretary James Cleverly have picked up nomination forms for the contest, according to a senior Conservative official.
The official added that rightwing MPs Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister, and Suella Braverman, ex-home secretary, had also collected the forms from party grandees supervising the election.
The other MPs said to have picked up the documents were former home secretary Dame Priti Patel, ex-work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, and former security minister Tom Tugendhat.
The seven MPs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, Tugendhat became the second MP after Cleverly to formally declare he was seeking to become the next Tory leader. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he said the Conservatives had lost the July 4 election because they had “lost” the trust of the public.
Tugendhat is viewed as a moderate candidate, but in an effort to appeal to Tory Eurosceptics, he echoed Sunak’s previous pledge that the UK should leave the European Convention on Human Rights if the convention made it harder for the country to “control our own borders”.
Nominations for the contest to succeed Sunak opened on Wednesday evening, and close on Monday.
Those seeking to stand must secure the backing of at least 10 Tory MPs. Party grandees expect five or six would-be candidates to reach this threshold of support.
The Conservative parliamentary party will then whittle the number of candidates down to two, leaving the Tory membership to make the final choice. Sunak’s successor will be unveiled on November 2.
Former health secretary Victoria Atkins — who had been seen as a potential contender — has ruled herself out.
She wrote in the Daily Telegraph that the Tories would only return to power by appealing to young voters and taking a pragmatic approach to governing the country.
Bookmakers have made Badenoch the favourite to succeed Sunak, followed by Jenrick, Tugendhat, Cleverly, Patel and Stride.
Cleverly, who also served as foreign secretary, launched his bid for the Tory leadership on Tuesday.
A Brexiter who also appeals to centrists in the party, he will pitch himself as a unity candidate.
He told the BBC that voters had been left with the wrong impression that Conservatives “were more focused on ourselves than serving the British people” in recent years, adding: “We have to get out of that habit.”
Cleverly, who faced a strong challenge from Reform UK in his Braintree constituency in Essex, rejected suggestions the Tories should merge with Nigel Farage’s populist party.