Hit by historic electoral defeat in the July 4 election, Britain’s Conservative Party now faces electing its new leader and how to compete with the burgeoning far right in the years to come. The finalists in the penultimate vote to succeed former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are the two most radical candidates of the remaining three.
Former minister Kemi Badenoch, a champion of trans rights, and former immigration secretary Robert Jenrick, who resigned over policies preservatives They seemed soft to them, this Thursday they beat James Cleverly, the centrist and former Minister of Foreign Affairs who had asked his party colleagues to be “more normal”.
Badenoch was this Wednesday in first position during the last vote of the parliamentary group, which found itself with 121 seats after having lost more than 200. After several rounds which left these two finalists, it will now be the members of the party who vote for the chief. The result will be published on November 2. Badenoch is the favorite, according to a poll of Conservative Party members in ConservativeHomea site dedicated to party news.
Sunak announced his resignation the day after the election, but has since temporarily remained in office while the party votes for his successor. He still participates as speaker in the weekly monitoring session of the House of Commons, but limits his appearances and did not wish to make a speech at the party congress a few days ago.
Calling elections is the prerogative of the Prime Minister and, given Labor’s overwhelming majority of more than 400 seats, there may not be a general election for five years, the usual parliamentary cycle, that is, until 2029. Over the past five years, the Conservative Party has changed leaders three times.
Several Conservative MPs stressed this Wednesday that they had made an error in their tactical votes, believing that Cleverly’s victory was assured after his first place in Tuesday’s voting round.
The anti-trans standard bearer
Badenoch, a former trade minister and former secretary of state for equalities, has defended biological gender against trans rights, defends the selection of migrants based on their origin because “not all cultures are equally valid” and argues that paid maternity leave has disappeared. far.”
While in government, Badenoch repeatedly intervened in controversies over gender self-determination and, for example, asked schools with regulations to inform parents if a minor had doubts about their identity. He also wanted a legislative modification of the equality rules to strengthen the criterion of biological sex. As a candidate, she promised to push for a law excluding trans people from certain sports competitions and hospital areas.
On immigration, Badenoch calls for a hard line, but does not go as far as his rival, who wants the United Kingdom to leave the European Court of Human Rights that his country helped found. A few days ago, Badenoch cited Spain as an example of migration policy in this European framework.
Badenoch, 44, was born in London and grew up between Lagos, Nigeria, where his parents are from, and the United States. She joined the Conservative Party at the age of 25, although she worked for a time as a banking consultant. In 2012, she was first elected to the London local assembly. He has been a member of the House of Commons since 2017.
The former minister was already the favorite to lead the Conservative Party last year due to her acceptance among the bases, as political scientist Tim Bale, author of a book on recent history, explained to elDiario.es of the Conservative Party after Brexit. time. “Someone might surprise us, but looking at the cabinet, it’s hard to see anyone who can defeat Badenoch,” he said in the interview.
The anti-migrant icon
Jenrick, 42, was born in central England to a working-class family, studied at Cambridge University and worked as a lawyer in London and Moscow. He was a director of auction house Christie’s until he was elected to the House of Commons in 2014. He was then considered a centrist and voted against Brexit in the referendum the following year .
His transformation into one of the representatives of the right was already complete at the end of 2023, when he resigned as Secretary of State for Immigration in protest against Sunak’s attempt to relax the policy of deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda so that it can be accepted by the British courts. So he wanted Sunak to reverse any legislation that would prevent the plan.
He now assures that he would take the decision to leave the Court of Human Rights and cut off aid to any country that does not accept the repatriation of its nationals. Jenrick has also become a leading advocate of a complete break with the EU.
In August, during anti-immigrant riots in several cities in England, Jenrick attacked pro-Palestinian protests and called for arrests.
“It is very wrong that someone can shout ‘Allah is great’ in the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, or project genocidal chants onto Big Ben and not be immediately arrested,” Jenrick said in a statement. interview on Sky.
Jenrick also declared himself an admirer of Donald Trump, while Badenoch only said he would have a good relationship with either of the two White House candidates.
Surprise
The result of the two finalists came as a surprise due to the apparent good reception among MPs of Cleverly’s candidacy after his speech at the party congress a few days ago. “Let’s be more like Reagan. Let’s be enthusiastic, people we can relate to, positive, optimistic. Let’s be more normal,” he said in Birmingham earlier this month.
Cleverly has been a Conservative MP since 2015 and has held various positions in the governments of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Sunak. He is now the party’s spokesperson for the Interior, the portfolio he had during the last executive Tory. Like other conservatives, he defends a firm hand in expelling migrants, but he has a more conciliatory speech than his rivals and, in addition, he refuses to leave international treaties for the protection of refugees. He defines himself as a centrist and has criticized some of his colleagues for their obsession with “ideological purity”.
In July, the Conservative Party recorded the worst results in its history after 14 years in power marked by cuts in public services more severe than in other countries after the financial crisis and Brexit, in addition to common crises in Europe due to the pandemic. and the Ukrainian war.
Sunak remains one of the country’s most unpopular leaders, although Britons are also unhappy with the new Labor government after three months. The two conservative finalists are little known to the general public, but Badenoch fares less well, according to a YouGov poll.
