“Hugely significant”: Who is in the running for the leadership of the British Conservatives? | Politics News

London, United Kingdom – An outspoken 44-year-old who considers Margaret Thatcher her hero, a former immigration minister who resigned after claiming the controversial Rwanda program did not “go far enough”, a former soldier who jokes that he is “in “invaded a country” while serving time in Iraq, and a Brexiteer prone to gaffes and made a distasteful remark about a date rape drug,

In this relative order, UK Conservative politicians Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Stimmehat and James Cleverly are vying for what is said to be the worst job in politics: Leader of the Opposition.

The candidates will make their case at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham, which began on Sunday and will continue until Wednesday.

Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, resigned as leader of the Conservatives following their disastrous performance in the July 4 general election. Priti Patel, a former home secretary, and former cabinet minister Mel Stride were voted out by Conservative MPs in previous ballots.

Those lawmakers will vote Oct. 9 and 10 to narrow the contest to two candidates. Party members, estimated at more than 170,000 people, will then cast their votes.

What is at stake?

The stakes are high after the party’s worst election defeat since its founding in 1834, a major blow to the Conservatives, who had led government for more than a decade until July.

There are now just 121 Conservative MPs in Parliament to Labor’s 404 seats, compared to a Conservative majority of 365 before the election.

“The [Conservative leadership] “The election is hugely significant and will have huge consequences for the future of British politics and the country,” Toby James, professor of politics and public policy at the University of East Anglia, told Al Jazeera. “The new leader will have the opportunity to determine the direction of the party – which has been one of the most successful in the world electorally.”

But as they adjust to life in the shadows, the Tories are divided.

While some top Conservatives believe now is the time to appease voters who abandoned them in favor of Nigel Farage’s far-right reform movement, others are talking about a return to the kind of middle-ground politics championed by former prime minister David Cameron.

What went wrong for the Conservatives?

The final years of Conservative rule have been marked by scandal and chaos as the government struggled to deal with Britain’s exit from the European Union and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cameron resigned in 2016 after his attempt to keep the UK in the EU failed and was succeeded by Theresa May. Then came Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and finally Sunak.

“Competition is hard to predict,” James said. “There are now only a very small number of Conservative MPs left in Parliament… A small number of vote shifts between MPs could therefore have a decisive impact on the election campaign.

“When leadership candidates stand for the leadership, their audience is the MPs and members of the Conservative Party who are allowed to vote. When they run for prime minister, the electorate is the entire country. Their first task will therefore have to be to increase the party’s appeal beyond its core base. This requires listening to the public to understand why the party achieved such a disastrous result in July.”

Who are the candidates and what do they promise?

Kemi Badenoch: culture warrior

Badenoch promises to “lead and renew” the Conservatives. According to her campaign, she believes in “meritocracy” and rejects “attempts to force us into identity groups.”

Badenoch often found himself in the headlines for his involvement in controversial issues such as transgender rights and colonialism. He has been described as outspoken and has been accused of workplace bullying. Staff at the Ministry of Economy and Trade, which she formerly headed, claimed the office was toxic, her behavior was “traumatizing” and she played favorites, the Guardian reported. She has denied the accusation.

Badenoch wants to ban so-called conversion therapy, opposes what she calls “identity politics” and has downplayed the role of colonialism in Britain’s prosperity. Margaret Thatcher, she says, is her political hero.

At the British LGBT Awards this year, Doctor Who actor David Tennant took aim at Badenoch, the then equalities minister, over her stance on transgender issues. Tennant said he hoped for a world where she “no longer exists” and told her to “shut up.”

She was born in London to Nigerian parents and spent her childhood in Lagos.

She became an MP in 2017 and made her first bid to become Conservative leader in 2022 after Johnson resigned. She finished fourth, which was considered a success given her relative lack of experience.

Last month she told right-wing broadcaster GB News that Britons who voted for the populist, anti-immigrant Reform movement were “our people”, an apparent attempt to appease them, claiming they were “very right-wing, but also very right-wing “to be pragmatic”.

James Cleverly: Party loyalist prone to gaffes

Former home and foreign secretary Cleverly, 54, was born to a Sierra Leonean mother who emigrated to London to become a midwife – a personal story he has told throughout his career – and an English father who worked as a midwife Surveyor worked.

He cleverly joined the army after leaving a private school, but after sustaining a leg injury during training, he held jobs in publishing before becoming an MP.

He is an old ally of Boris Johnson, supported Brexit and wants to revive the Rwanda program abolished by the current Labor government. The policy, heavily criticized by human rights groups, would have resulted in people identified by the UK as undocumented migrants and refugees being sent to the African country for asylum processing.

He also doesn’t shy away from issues such as racism and warned his party not to do a “passable impression” of Farage in order to recover from the election.

He called the killing of George Floyd in the US a “terrible and unacceptable act” and criticized football fans who booed players who took a knee during the Black Lives Matter protests. He wants to win the support of the UK’s black communities but acknowledged the Conservatives are mired in a divisive “psychodrama”.

He calls for party unity, lower taxes and higher military spending.

According to the right-wing newspaper Telegraph, Cleverly has positioned himself as a centrist and is considered an approachable politician. He is popular with the public, as a recent poll shows.

He is also known for gaffes. Last year, activists said he should resign after he joked about spiking his wife’s alcohol with a date rape drug.

Robert Jenrick: Hardliner former immigration minister

In December, Jenrick, 42, resigned as immigration minister, saying the Rwanda program had not gone “far enough” in reducing undocumented migration.

The focus of his campaign is migration, including through legal channels.

He warns of low wages, high housing costs, a strain on public services and a decline in “cohesion” if the migration of “low-skilled” people continues.

Although he voted for the UK to remain in the EU, analysts say he has since made a leap to the right.

He is now insisting on a call to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, a move he says will speed up the deportation of asylum seekers. He supports cutting taxes and boosting the private sector.

Jenrick is now firmly on the right wing of the party and is the leading candidate in the leadership race.

In late September, he wore a hoodie that read “Hamas are terrorists” and reportedly pushed for the cancellation of a Palestinian student visa.

Jenrick was born in the English Midlands, attended private school and graduated from Cambridge. Before being elected to Parliament in 2014, he was a lawyer and director of the renowned auction house Christie’s.

Tom Tugendhat: Former soldier with a focus on foreign policy

As the race heats up, Stimmehat reiterates his well-known claim that the “most outrageous thing” he ever did was invade Iraq while serving in the military.

“I invaded a country once, a few years ago, in 2003; I was part of the invading force in Iraq,” he told the Spectator last week, repeating the tongue-in-cheek remark he made during the 2022 leadership race, which he previously entered and lost to Liz Truss.

He spoke Arabic and served in Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2021, the then security minister gave a rousing speech to Parliament condemning NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He is known as a centrist and has boasted of arresting more Russian and Chinese spies during his time in office than in previous years.

During the recent race riots, he condemned Farage for stoking tensions.

For John and Vandra Butler, retired Conservative voters in Stimmehat’s sleepy southern England constituency of Tonbridge, the decision is clear: their local MP should lead the Conservative Party.

“He has done quite a lot for this area,” Vandra told Al Jazeera, before admitting that the party was suffering from “leadership problems”.