2024 Conservative Party Leadership Contest

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A Conservative Party leadership election was announced on 5 July 2024 when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared his intention to resign as Conservative leader following the party's historic defeat at the 2024 general election.

On this page, you will find some information about each candidate who has confirmed they are running.

Lt Col The Rt Hon James Cleverly TD VR MP

James Spencer Cleverly was born on 4 September 1969 (54; will be 55 by election time). Cleverly has been the Member of Parliament for Braintree in Essex since 2015. He is also an Army Reserve officer and Shadow Home Secretary. He previously served as Home Secretary from November 2023 to July 2024, Foreign Secretary from 2022 to 2023, and Education Secretary from July to September 2022.

Cleverly was privately educated at Riverston School and Colfe's College, both in Lee, London. He also attained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ealing College of Higher Education (now University of West London) in 1991.

After graduation, Cleverly worked for publishing company Nielsen Holdings plc. He then worked as an international sales manager for Informa, before becoming an advertising manager at Crimson Publishing. He co-founded web publishing company Point and Fire in 2007.

Cleverly sustained a leg injury while training at Sandhurst in 1989. He was commissioned into the Army Reserve in 1991, becoming an acting second lieutenant. In 1993, he was promoted to lieutenant, then captain in 1998, then major in 2003. Until 2005, he was Battery Commander of 266 (Para) Battery Royal Artillery (Volunteers). He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 2015 and currently works as a Staff Officer in 1st (UK) Armoured Division.

In 2007, Cleverly was elected to the London Assembly to represent Bexley and Bromley. He was appointed the Mayor of London's youth ambassador in 2009. In 2010, he was appointed the chairman of the London Waste and Recycling Board, replacing Boris Johnson. Cleverly was appointed chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority in 2012.

Cleverly was first elected to Parliament at the 2015 general election. He did not stand again for the London Assembly. In 2016, he voted against a proposed amendment to require private landlords to make homes "fit for human habitation". In the same year, he was asked to step down as patron of Advocacy for All for voting to cut Employment and Support Allowance. He advocated for Brexit. He stood to replace Theresa May as Leader of the Conservative Party in 2019, but dropped out of the race early.

In 2019, Cleverly was appointed Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, alongside Ben Elliot. In 2022, he announced that the UK would pursue sanctions against Iran for supplying drones to attack civilian targets in Ukraine. Cleverly endorsed Boris Johnson in the 2022 Leadership Contest until Johnson dropped out, then Cleverly endorsed Rishi Sunak. In 2023, he was critised for calling China a potential "partner for good" after the Chinese Government's human rights abuses and aggressive foreign policy.

In 2022, Cleverly was accused by Labour MP Alex Cunningham of calling his Stockton North constituency a "shithole" in the House of Commons; Cleverly denied this, but apologised for using "unparliamentary language" which Cleverly said was used to describe Cunningham himself. Later that year, he faced calls to resign for joking about spiking his wife's drink with Rohypnol. His spokesperson said that Cleverly apologised for what he had intended to be an ironic joke.

His Campaign Website

The Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP

Robert Edward Jenrick was born on 9 January 1982 (42). Jenrick has been the Member of Parliament for Newark since the 2014 by-election. He has previously served as the Minister of State for Immigration from 2022 to 2023, Minister of State for Health from September to October 2022, and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from 2019 to 2021.

Jenrick was born in Wolverhampton and grew up in Shropshire, near Ludlow. He was privately educated at Wolverhampton Grammar School before reading History at St John's College, Cambridge, graduating in 2003. He was news editor at student newspaper Varsity in 2001. He obtained a Thouron Award to study Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania from 2003 to 2004. He gained a Graduate Diploma in Law from The College of Law in 2005 and completed a legal practice course at BPP Law School in 2006.

In 2008, Jenrick qualified as a solicitor and practised corporate law with Skappen Arps and Sullivan & Cromwell in London and Moscow. In 2014, Jenrick was a director of Christie's, the auction house.

Jenrick contested the 2010 general election, standing in the Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency, but was unsuccessful. After the MP for Newark, Patrick Mercer, resigned following a cash for lobbying scandal, Jenrick stood at the by-election in 2014 and was elected to Parliament with a majority of 7,403. In 2016, Channel 4 alleged Jenrick overspent in his election campaign. Jenrick said he was confident his election expenses had been compiled in compliance with the law. In 2017, the Electoral Commission found that he had contravened the spending rules and The Conservative Party was fined £70,000.

In 2014, Jenrick was elected to the Health and Social Care Select Committee. In 2015, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to the minister of state for employment at the Department for Work and Pensions, Esther McVey. Later that year, he was appointed PPS to the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, Michael Gove. Jenrick was opposed to Brexit prior to 2016. He was Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on International Trade & Investment and Vice Chairman on the Groups on China and France.

Jenrick was appointed PPS to the home secretary in 2017. As Chairman of the APPG for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity, Jenrick met Nadia Murad, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist. In 2019, he represented the Government at the Israel-Palestine peace initiative.

In 2020, Jenrick spoke at the Conservative Friends of Israel Parliamentary reception, saying he would "look forward to the day" when Britain's embassy in Israel will be "moved to Jerusalem". The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) called on Johnson to sack Jenrick. He presided as Housing Secretary over the Grenfell Tower fire, and was critised for his response. In 2020, is was estimated that 700,000 people were still trapped in flats wrapped in flammable materials, and 3.6 million had fire-related defects.

Jenrick was reported in 2020 to have charged taxpayers more than £100,000 for "a third home" in his constituency that he appeared to use only rarely. During the COVID lockdowns, Jenrick travelled 150 miles from London to his second home in Herefordshire to see his family, before then travelling 40 miles to see his parents near Shrewsbury in Shropshire.

Jenrick approved a £1 billion development of 1,500 homes proposed by Richard Desmond, a Conservative Party donor. Later that year, the High Court deemed his sign-off to be "unlawful by reason of apparent bias". Jenrick was forced to release documents surrounding his dealings with Desmond. One email revealed that he had pressured officials to work out how to overrules the Government's own planning inspector so he could approve plans before the local council's infrastructure levy was increased.

In 2023, it was reported that Jenrick told staff at an asylum reception centre designed for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in Kent to paint over wall art depicting cartoons and animals in order to provide a less welcoming atmosphere for children. The Home Office confirmed this had been carried out on 5 July. Later that year, he resigned from cabinet, saying the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill "does not go far enough".

His Campaign Website

The Rt Hon Mel Stride MP

Melvyn John Stride was born on 30 September 1961 (62; will be 63 by election time). Stride has been the Member of Parliament for Central Devon since 2010. He is also Shadow Secretary of State for Works and Pensions. He previously served as Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General from 2017 to 2019, Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council from May to July 2019, and Secretary of State for Works and Pensions from 2022 to 2024.

Stride was born in Ealing, London. He was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where he was elected President of the Oxford Union. Stride set up a business in 1987 specialising in trade exhibitions, conferences and publishing (Venture Marketing Group) which he and his wife jointly controlled, before selling it to a US subsidiary.

Elected to Parliament in 2010, he was appointed PPS to the Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning, John Hayes. He was promoted to Lord Commissioner of the Treasury in 2015. Stride opposed Brexit prior to 2016. In 2019, he was accused of breaking the Ministerial Code. He narrowly won re-election in 2024 by just 61 votes. In 2023, he said that the triple lock system was not sustainable in the long term.

He has not launched a campaign website.

The Rt Hon Tom Tugendhat MBE VR MP

Thomas Georg John Tugendhat was born on 27 June 1973 (51). He has been the Member of Parliament for Tonbridge, previously Tonbridge and Malling, since 2015. He is also Shadow Minister for Security. He previously served as Chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from 2017 to 2022, and Minister of State for Security from 2022 to 2024.

Tugendhat was bron in Westminster, the son of Sir Michael Tugendhat, a High Court judge. He is a nephew of Lord Tugendhat, former Vice President of the European Commission. He was educated at St Paul's School, London, an all-boys private school, before studying theology at the University of Bristol. He then did a Master's degree in Islamic studies at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and learnt Arabic in Yemen. He briefly served as a journalist at the Lebenese newspaper The Daily Star.

In 2003, Tugendhat was commissioned in to the Educational and Training Services Branch of the Adjutant General's Corps, Territorial Army, British Army, as a second lietenant. He then transferred to the Intelligence Corps. In 2005, he was promoted to a lieutenant, then captain in 2007, then major in 2010. He became a lieutenant corporal in 2013. Tugendhat served during the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan.

Shortly after being elected to Parliament in 2015, he accused Iran of arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Tugendhat voted against Brexit in the 2016 referendum. He voted in favour of the withdrawal agreement negotiated by Theresa May's government each of the three times it was put to a vote. After the Salisbury poisonings, Tugendhat said the attack was "if not an act of war... certainly a warlike act by the Russian Federation." In 2022, he suggested expelling all Russian citizens from the UK in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He later clarified that he meant "all Russian citizens connected to the putin regime."

Tugendhat ran in the first 2022 Conservative Leadership Contest after the resignation of Boris Johnson, and was eliminated in the third round of parliamentary voting. Later in 2022, he was appointed Minister of State for Security. He continued taking a hawkish position on the People's Republic of China, who maintained travel bans against him. Following his announcement to stand in the 2024 Leadership Contest, he changed his slogan, after the first letters of his slogan spelled out TURD. "Together we can. Unite the party. Rebuild trust. Defeat Labour." He changed "Defeat Labour" to "Win back the country".

His Campaign Website

The Rt Hon Dame Priti Patel DBE MP

Dame Priti Sushil Patel was born on 29 March 1972 (52). She has been the Member of Parliament for Witham since 2010. She has previously served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022, and Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2017.

Patel was born in London. In the 1960s, her parents emigrated to the UK and settled in Hertfordshire. They established a chain of newsagents in London and the South East. Her father was a UKIP candidate in 2013. Patel attended a comprehensive school in Watford before studying economics at Keele University. She then studied British government and politics at the University of Essex.

After school, patel became an intern at Conservative Central Office, having been selected by Andrew Lansley, Head of the Conservative Research Department. From 1995 to 1997, Patel headed the press office of the Referendum Party. She then worked for William Hague in his press office, dealing with media relations. In 2003, the Financial Times (FT) published an article with Patel's quotes alleging that "racist attitudes" persisted in the Tory Party. Patel wrote to the FT stating her comments had been misinterpreted.

In 2000, Patel worked for Weber Shandwick, a PR consulting firm. She then moved to the British multinational alcoholic beverages company, Diageo, and worked in corporate relations between 2003 and 2007. In 2007, she rejoined Weber Shandwick as Director of Corporate and Public Affairs practices.

Patel contest the 2005 general election, standing for Nottingham North, but was unsuccessful. David Cameron identified her as a promising candidate and she was selected to stand for Witham in 2010, and was elected to Parliament in the general election of the same year. Together with Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore, and Liz Truss, she co-authored a book called Britannia Unchained. The book was critical of workplace productivity, claiming "once they enter the workplace, the British are among the worst idlers in the world." The book's solution was to reduce the welfare state and seek to emulate the working conditions of Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea.

In 2013, Patel was drafted into the Number 10 Policy Unit, and was promoted as Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. In 2014, Patel lodged a complaint with the BBC for biased coverage of Narendra Modi during the Indian elections. She was awarded a "Jewels of Gujarat" award in Ahmedabad, India. In 2015, Patel became Minister of State for Employment in the Department for Work and Pensions, and sworn on to the Privy Council.

In late 2015, a junior employee at the Department for Work and Pensions was dismissed from her role and brought a formal complaint of bullying and harassment against the department, including Patel. In 2017, a settlement was reached for £25,000. Patel voted to support Cameron's planned bombing of Islamic State targets in Syria.

Patel has always been in support of Brexit, saying the EU is "undemocratic and interferes too much in our daily lives." In 2017, Patel was critical of the government's Brexit negotiations, stating: "I would have told the EU in particular to sod off with their excessive financial demands."

Theresa May appointed Patel to the position of Secretary of State for International Development in 2016. Patel announced that the UK would contribute £1.1 billion to a global aid fund userd to combat malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS, and added that any further aid deals would include performance agreements meaning the government could reduce aid if specific criteria were not met by countries.

Patel was critical of the UK's decision to invest Department For International Developement (DFID) funds to support the Palestinian territories. She ordered a review in 2016, and froze approximately a third of aid to the Palestinians. In March 2020, it was reported that Patel was alleged to have "harassed and belittled" staff in her private office.

In 2017, it was revealed Patel had held meetings during her "private holiday" to Israel. Up to a dozen meetings took place, including the leader of Israel's centrist Yesh Atid party. Apparently, neither the Foreign Office nor the Prime Minister knew of these meetings. She was summoned to meet PM May who said Patel had been "reminded of her responsibilities." Patel apologised formally. According to Downing Street, May learnt of the meetings from BBC news, after it was public. After, it was revealed two more meetings had taken place that the PM was not aware of, and Patel was summoned to Downing Street again, where she resigned from cabinet.

After being appointed Home Secretary by Johnson in 2019, news broke that Patel had begun working for Viasat as a strategic advisor with a pay of £5,000 a month for five hours work a month. Patel launched the points-based immigration system in 2020, which aims to reduce the number of immigrants to the UK by requiring them to meet a set of criteria. In 2021, she banned the use of EU Identity Cards as a travel document for entering the UK. In 2021, a High Court judge found that the Home Office acted unlawfully by housing asylum seekers in "unsafe" and "squalid" army barracks, and failed to look after vulnerable people.

In 2022, Patel visited Rwanda and signed the Rwanda asylum plan. A review later that year found that the Border Force's overall approach was "ineffective and possibly counterproductive".

In 2020, Patel came under scrutiny for trying to "force out" her most senior civil servant. The civil servant resigned, saying he would sue the government for constructive dismissal, and alleging that Patel had orchestrated a "vicious" campaign against him. Later that year, a Cabinet Office inquiry found Patel had breached ministerial code by not treating civil servants with consideration and respect. In 2021, the dismissed civil servant received payment of £370,000 throught a settleent.

She has not launched a campaign website.

The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch MP

Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch was born on 2 January 1980 (44). She has been the Member of Parliament for North West Essex since 2024 (previously MP for Saffron Walden from 2017-2024). She is also Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. She previously served as Secretary of State for Business and Trade from 2023 to 2024, President of the Board of Trade and Minister from Women and Equalities from 2022 to 2024, and Secretary of State for International Trade from 2022 to 2023.

Badenoch was born in London. She spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria and in the United States. She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother's due to the political situation in Nigeria. She achieved A-Levels from Phoenix College, a further education college in Morden, south London, whilst working at a branch of McDonald's among other jobs. She studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, completing a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree in 2003. She initially worked as a software engineer at Logica from 2003 to 2006 before graduating from the University of London with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 2009.

At the 2010 general election, Badenoch contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency but was unsuccessful. In 2012, she stood for London Assembly, but was also unsuccessful. In 2015, an Assembly Member (Victoria Borwick) was elected MP and so resigned from her role. the next candidate in-line (Suella Braverman) was also elected MP, and so the vacancy went to Badenoch. She went on to retain her Assembly seat in 2016. Badenoch supported Brexit in the 2016 referendum.

Badenoch was shortlisted to be the Conservative Party candidate for the Hampstead and Kilburn constituency but was unsuccessful at selection. She was successfully selected as the Conservative candidate for Saffron Walden, where she was elected MP in 2017. Within months of becoming an MP, Badenoch was selected to join the 1922 Executive Committee and appointed to the parliamentary Justice Select Committee. In 2018, she was appointed the Conservative Party's Vice Chair for Candidates. She voted for Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in 2019.

In 2019, Badenoch was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families by Boris Johnson. In 2020, she was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Equalities) in the Department for International Trade. In 2021, she was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. In 2022, she resigned from Government, citing Johnson's handling of the Chris Pincher scandal.

Following Johnson's resignation, Badenoch entered the leadership contest, stating that she wanted to "tell the truth" and that she advocated "strong but limited government". The Sunday Times released an article saying she entered the race "a relatively unknown minister for local government" but "within a week emerged as the insurgent candidate to become Britain's next prime minister." She was eliminated in the fourth round of parliamentary voting, as she received the fewest votes of the remaining candidates.

After Liz Truss became PM, she appointed Badenoch to her Cabinet as Secretary of State for International Trade. Following Truss' resignation the following month, Badenoch endorsed Rishi Sunak as "the serious, honest leader we need." She remained in her Cabinet role throughout the Sunak government. After the 2024 general election, she criticised Sunak's decision to call an early election without telling his Cabinet, and said that the D-Day blunder cost figures like Penny Mordaunt their seats. She states senior MPs fail to understand the "enormity" of the defeat they've suffered.

Her Campaign Website