James Cleverly has become the first candidate to throw his hat into the ring for the leadership for the Conservative party. The shadow home secretary said he was “best placed” to unite the Tories and overturn Keir Starmer’s “loveless landslide” to re-enter government. In a shot against colleagues on the hard right of the Conservative party, Cleverly warned against “sacrificing pragmatic government in the national interest on the altar of ideological purity”. Writing for the Daily Telegraph, he said the party needed to have “broad appeal” to win over Reform voters who are concerned about immigration, Liberal Democrat voters concerned about rural areas and Labour voters who want to see economic growth and better public services.
The former home secretary said that to win again his party “must not descend into the infighting, navel-gazing and the internecine manoeuvrings at Westminster that plagued us in government” but “raise our standards” and “reconnect with our members and voters.”
Cleverly is the first person to formally declare his ambition to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader. Others who are said to be planning bids are Tom Tugendhat, the shadow security minister; Kemi Badenoch, the shadow communities secretary; and the former home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, and Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister. The party set out its timetable for the extended leadership contest on Monday, with nominations closing next week. Conservative MPs will shortlist four candidates in September who will take to the stage at party conference in October and make their pitch to grassroots members. After that, MPs will narrow down the list to two candidates who will be put to a vote by the membership. In his article, Cleverly said the Conservatives were the “most effective and successful political organisation on the planet” but had lost the trust of voters in the last election after descending into “self-indulgent infighting”. He said his party needed to “get back to winning ways” and that his ambition was to become prime minister. Cleverly pointed to his record as foreign secretary and home secretary under Liz Truss and Sunak, and party chair under Boris Johnson. He called for a commitment to increase defence spending to 3% of GDP, cutting taxes and protecting the green belt. “We need to rediscover confidence that our core values are shared by the British public and present an offer of unity, security, and prosperity,” he said. “That should be our USP against a behemothic Labour party, ravaged with ideological incoherence and factional division.”