A Conservative MP has said he will nominate Dame Priti Patel to be the next leader of his party, claiming the former home secretary could end Tory infighting.
Sir Alec Shelbrooke, a backbench MP, said he believed the former home secretary is “respected on all wings of the party” and could rebuild the Conservatives.
Nominations in the party leadership contest will open at 7 pm on Wednesday and close at 2.30 pm on 29 July. Candidates will need the support of 10 MPs in order to make it onto the ballot paper.
According to the rules of the contest, Conservative MPs will then need to narrow down to four candidates, who will make their case to party members at the Conservative conference this autumn.
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The four candidates will then be whittled down to a final two, with the winner chosen by party members and announced on 2 November.
Shelbrooke’s comments come after shadow home secretary James Cleverly became the first Conservative to declare his candidacy for the party’s leadership.
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Cleverly, who has held a number of senior roles in government, revealed his decision in a video on social media.
In the post, which saw him return to his childhood home in southeast London, Cleverly said the Conservatives needed to “re-establish our reputation as the party who, in government, helps grow the economy, helps people achieve their goals, their dreams, and their aspirations”.
Several Conservative MPs are expected to announce they are running for their party’s leadership over the coming days, including shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick and Dame Priti Patel.
Declaring his support for the former home secretary, Sir Alec suggested Dame Priti could end the party’s recent record of factional infighting.
He told GB News: “I will be nominating Priti Patel because I think Priti has not just the pragmatic approach to all the issues but she was also there, brought into [Conservative Campaign Headquarters] by Cecil Parkinson in 1997 about how to rebuild the Conservative Party after that defeat.
“You get this pattern in government, that after a long period of time in government, the structure starts to fall down. You think it would do the opposite, but it doesn’t. You’re so busy on governing that the structure falls down. That is task number one.
“Priti has had senior roles and she’s respected on all wings of the party, and I think that’s an important point. And it comes back to we’ve got to have a conservative leader representing the Conservative Party and get away from these different gangs that have formed and have been fighting with each other.”
The general election earlier this month saw the Conservatives suffer a landslide loss, with Rishi Sunak’s party reduced to 121 MPs, down 251.
The Conservative vote also dropped from 13.9 million at the last election in 2019 to just 6.8 million.
On the morning after the election result, Sunak confirmed that he will resign as Conservative leader when arrangements were in place to choose his successor.
Speaking on Monday, shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride also confirmed that he is considering running to succeed Sunak as Conservative leader.
Asked about his potential ambitions, Stride told Times Radio: “[Running for the leadership is] something I’m considering. A number of colleagues have approached me and suggested that I might do that.”
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