Candidates emerge for Conservative8k8 register leadership

Former British immigration minister Robert Jenrick entered the Conservative leadership race on Thursday, a day after former security minister Tom Tugendhat announced his bid to lead the party, which lost power to Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party in the July 4 general election.

The Conservative Party is set to announce its new leader on Nov 2, following a leadership contest triggered by the party's worst-ever election performance, which prompted former prime minister Rishi Sunak to resign.

The leadership race will involve the party reducing the pool of nominees to four contenders, who will then make their case at the Conservative Party conference to be held at the end of September.

Subsequently, the nominations will be further narrowed down to two finalists, after which party members will cast their votes to elect a new leader.

As of Thursday afternoon, the leadership contest has seen three Conservative members of Parliament declare their candidacy to succeed Sunak.

Former home secretary James Cleverly was the first to enter the contest on Tuesday.

He said he was "best placed "to bring the Conservative Party together, while cautioning his more right-wing colleagues against "sacrificing pragmatic government in the national interest on the altar of ideological purity".

A recent poll of party members placed Jenrick as the leading candidate to replace Sunak, ahead of right-wing rivals Kemi Badenoch, Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, all of whom are anticipated to join the race.

Pledging to win

"The Conservative Party can win the next election. Trust me. I will make it happen," Tugendhat wrote in an article for The Telegraph on Wednesday.

"We lost the trust of the British people, because we didn't do what we said we would. We must secure our country's future for the generations of today and tomorrow."

In an interview with the BBC, Tugendhat hinted at his potential willingness to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights, a contentious issue within the Conservative Party.

"Factional fighting was more important than delivery for the British people" during the last Conservative government, he added.

"We need to apologize for the mistakes made. What I'd like to do is to rebuild that trust to rebuild the Conservative Party to reunite and to make sure that we're able to deliver."

Danny Kuger, Jenrick's campaign manager, announced the submission of Jenrick's nomination papers on Thursday.

In a statement, Kruger emphasized the need to unite the party and convince the public of their competence.

"Rob Jenrick will do that. He has the energy, temperament and policy agenda to take on our rivals and lead us back to power in five years," he said.