James Cleverly has said there is a “reasonable chance” he will stand in the Conservative leadership contest.
Mel Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary, used this phrase on Monday when he was asked about whether he would run.
It comes after the Conservative Party confirmed Rishi Sunak’s replacement as Conservative leader will be announced on 2 November.
The party also clarified that the former prime minister, who led the Conservatives to their worst-ever defeat on 4 July, will remain acting leader until that date.
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Speaking on Tuesday, shadow home secretary James Cleverly was asked if he’d repeat Mel Stride’s language and say there is a “reasonable chance” he will run to replace Sunak.
Cleverly told Sky News: “There is a reasonable chance. Yeah. Look, we enter public service because we want to serve the British people and, as I have said, particularly as Conservatives, we are not a lobby group, we are not a think tank, we are not the political arm of some movement.
“The Conservative Party exists to provide good government and when we are in government it is our duty to do it well and when we are ejected from government… we need to think about why that happened.”
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 — but only when arrangements are in place to choose his successor.
Speaking on Monday, work and pensions secretary 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.
“We don’t yet know what the actual rules of the process will be, and I’ll want to wait to see that before I take a final decision. But it’s certainly a possibility.”
He added: “My main motivation, as I sit here considering this, is that I care about my party and I care about my country, and I’m deeply disturbed at the fact that we have suffered one of our biggest electoral defeats.”
Nominations to succeed Sunak will open on Wednesday at 7pm and will close at 2.30pm on Monday.
Candidates will need the support of 10 Conservative MPs to make it onto the ballot paper: a proposer, a seconder and eight nominations
According to the newly-announced 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.
The four candidates will then be whittled down to the final two candidates, with the winner chosen by party members.
Asked whether he had the backing of 10 MPs, Cleverly told Sky News: “I’ve had lots of very kind words from colleagues, both former colleagues and current colleagues.”
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