Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Kemi Badenoch, former business secretary, is expected by Tory MPs to announce her bid for the Conservative party leadership this weekend, ahead of nominations to replace Rishi Sunak closing on Monday.
Badenoch’s candidacy would round off a list of six former ministers vying to reshape the UK’s opposition party after it suffered a historic loss in the general election. She is the frontrunner in the contest and is expected to pitch the party to the right if elected.
But the former cabinet minister is facing competition from several candidates who are drawing support from moderate Tory MPs.
Mel Stride, former work and pensions secretary, on Friday became the fourth Tory MP to announce a leadership bid after he told the BBC that he was “fully nominated”. Stride said: “What we know from the general election is that we’re in a very, very difficult place as a party.”
He added: “We’ve substantially lost the trust of the British people and we’ve lost our reputation for competence.”
Stride followed James Cleverly, former home secretary, who announced his run before nominations opened on Wednesday. Ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat and Robert Jenrick, a former immigration minister, have also said they will stand.
Those seeking to stand for the leadership must secure the backing of at least 10 Tory MPs. Party grandees expect five or six people to reach this threshold of support.
Former home secretary Suella Braverman was struggling to gather enough nominations, according to one Tory official.
Dame Priti Patel, former home secretary, is also expected to stand after picking up nomination papers earlier this week, according to a senior party official. Patel is popular with the grassroots of the party and is expected to put herself forward as a unity candidate.
Badenoch, who is known for her combative and confrontational style, on Friday accused her rivals of “dirty tricks” after a dossier of comments made on an online blog were shared with journalists and published by the rightwing Spectator magazine, her former employer.
This included remarks that people who changed the world for good such as Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton were “notoriously rude”, unlike Adolf Hitler and Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.
Badenoch declined to comment on whether she wrote the posts. In a post on social media site X on Friday, she said the dossier was “petty and puerile”.
Badenoch owned a user profile on the website but could not recall whether she had written all the posts featured in the dossier, said one person familiar with the matter.
Over the summer, leadership candidates will make their case to members at Tory association events before facing hustings in front of MPs when parliament returns in September.
A series of ballots of MPs will whittle down the field to four by September 11. Those final four candidates will be offered keynote slots to speak from the main stage at the Conservatives’ conference in Birmingham at the end of September.
The parliamentary party will narrow 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.
Sir Graham Brady, former chair of the backbench 1922 committee, told the BBC that MPs should have an indicative vote on the final shortlist of two candidates to signal their preference.
“Party members will vote in the knowledge of what the parliamentary party thinks. It doesn’t mean they will follow the advice given, but it will be an informed choice,” he said.