5 candidates are within the operating to take over from Rishi Sunak as chief of the Conservative Get together.
Dame Priti Patel earlier grew to become the primary would-be chief to be knocked out of the competition in a poll of Tory MPs.
The MPs will subsequent week whittle down the remaining candidates from 5 to 4, who will then make their pitch to members on the occasion’s convention in Birmingham.
In a collection of additional ballots, the MPs will then slender the sphere to a last two contenders, with occasion members then selecting the winner.
Kemi Badenoch
Born in London and raised in Nigeria, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke grew to become the Tory MP for Saffron Walden in 2017 underneath her married identify Badenoch.
Recognized for her sturdy views and no-nonsense fashion, her political heroine rising up in Nigeria was Margaret Thatcher, in accordance with Blue Ambition, a brand new biography by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft.
She returned to the UK on the age of 16 to check for her A-levels earlier than gaining a masters diploma in pc methods engineering from Sussex College.
She grew to become extra Conservative partly as “a response to the very spoiled, entitled, privileged, metropolitan elite-in-training at college,” she advised a Spectator podcast.
Earlier than getting into politics, the 44-year-old mom of three labored in banking and IT.
She held a collection of ministerial jobs underneath Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who promoted her to enterprise secretary.
However it’s arguably by way of her different former function – as minister for ladies and equalities – that she has emerged as a darling of the trendy Conservative proper for her stance on trans rights.
She commonly tops polls of Tory members carried out by the web site Conservative House.
She first ran for Conservative chief in 2022 following the resignation of Boris Johnson and got here fourth regardless of beginning the race with a comparatively low-profile.
Launching her newest bid, she mentioned the Conservative Get together wanted to “cease appearing like Labour” to win again energy.
James Cleverly
Seen as being on the “reasonable” wing of the Conservative Get together, James Cleverly has been an MP since 2015, rising to develop into overseas secretary after which dwelling secretary.
Born and raised in south London, to an English father and Sierra Leonean mom, who labored as an NHS midwife, he was privately educated, regardless of the household’s modest means, and joined the Military straight after faculty.
His full time soldiering profession was lower quick by a leg harm however he stays an officer within the Military reserves.
Like his management rival, Ms Badenoch, the 55-year-old father-of-two lower his political tooth as a member of the London Meeting.
Earlier than getting into politics, he had a profession in journal and digital publishing, earlier than organising his personal firm.
A sociable determine, who enjoys a joke, he obtained into scorching water final yr for allegedly making a derogatory comment about Stockton-on-Tees within the Commons (one thing he denied).
He additionally needed to apologise for joking about spiking his spouse’s drink at a Downing Road reception.
He as soon as advised the Huffington Put up his greatest fault was: “I speak an excessive amount of and generally I communicate a bit too frankly, which I feel folks like till they don’t prefer it.”
He spoken of his need to “unite” the Conservatives and has urged the occasion to “assume and act like Conservatives once more”.
He’s additionally a sturdy defender of the earlier authorities’s coverage of sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda, and has mentioned he would deliver it again if he turns into prime minister.
Robert Jenrick
Robert Jenrick, 42, has reinvented himself without any consideration winger after beginning his political journey as a extra centrist determine and an in depth ally of former PM Rishi Sunak.
Final yr he resigned his function as immigration minister, saying Mr Sunak’s emergency Rwanda laws didn’t go far sufficient.
And he has since been outspoken about what he sees as his occasion’s failure to ship on its guarantees to chop immigration when it was in energy.
Particularly, he has led requires the UK to withdraw from the European Conference on Human Rights.
This helped to him to draw help from MPs beforehand loyal to his former boss on the House Workplace, Suella Braverman, who dominated herself out of the management contest earlier than it started.
The 42-year-old father of three was a company lawyer – and a director of public sale home Christie’s – earlier than getting into politics because the MP for Newark in 2014.
His Tory management pitch is that the occasion must confront onerous truths – and solely he could make the modifications wanted to win the following election.
In 2020, he was embroiled in controversy over his resolution as housing secretary to grant planning permission for a housing growth in east London linked to a Tory donor.
In 2023, he made headlines once more for ordering that murals of cartoon characters at a reception centre for baby asylum seekers in Dover be painted over.
Extra just lately, he admitted utilizing the load loss drug Ozempic however mentioned he “didn’t significantly take pleasure in it” and went on to drop extra pounds by extra conventional means.
Mel Stride
Maybe the least well-known of the 5 contenders among the many basic public, Mel Stride has quietly constructed up a help base amongst Tory MPs.
An in depth ally of Rishi Sunak, the 62-year-old was one among a handful of ministers trusted to do media interviews in the course of the basic election marketing campaign.
A grammar faculty boy from Portsmouth, he adopted the well-trodden path of a level in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford College, the place he was elected president of the Union, to the higher echelons of the Conservative Get together.
The daddy-of-three arrange Enterprise Advertising and marketing Group, an organization that organises commerce exhibits and exhibitions, earlier than turning into an MP in 2010.
After narrowly holding on to his Central Devon seat by 61 votes on the election, Mr Stride mentioned his occasion wanted to “assume lengthy and deeply” about its poor efficiency earlier than it might develop into the “pure occasion of presidency” once more
Launching his management bid, he mentioned his occasion wanted to “construct belief with the citizens once more”.
Mr Stride is at the moment shadow work and pensions secretary and has cited his roles as Treasury Choose Committee chair and Commons chief as proof of his potential to command “respect” throughout the occasion.
Tom Tugendhat
A former officer within the Territorial Military, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Tom Tugendhat is mostly seen as being a centrist.
However the shadow safety minister has sought to spice up his credentials with proper wing MPs by taking a tough line on immigration.
At his management marketing campaign launch, he pledged to cap the UK’s internet migration at 1000,000 a yr and didn’t rule out leaving the European Conference on Human Rights if he wins energy.
The 51-year-old beforehand misplaced a management race in opposition to Liz Truss, throughout which he pitched himself as providing a “contemporary begin” and to “bridge the Brexit divide”.
This time, he has pledged to “make the Conservative Get together a critical drive once more”, and has made a degree of apologizing for the conduct of his occasion when it was in authorities.
The son of a excessive courtroom choose, who was educated at high non-public faculty St Paul’s earlier than learning theology at Bristol College, he grew to become the MP for Tonbridge on the 2015 basic election.
A father of two, he voted Stay within the 2016 Brexit referendum. He was extremely essential of the Nato withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.