Mel Stride has confirmed that he is considering running to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader.
The shadow work and pensions secretary claimed he has been approached by a number of colleagues urging him to seek election as Tory 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.”
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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.”
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 morning, Stride argued against using “ideological labels” when pressed on whether he would seek to prevent a rightward shift in the party, but added: “I want us to have that One Nation tradition”.
After colleague Suella Braverman warned the party risked becoming “centrist cranks”, the shadow work and pensions secretary said: “I don’t think I’d describe myself as that at all.”
Stride went on to describe the Conservative Party’s dependence on older voters for electoral support as “untenable”.
Asked about a Focaldata report that one in six Conservative voters will die by the next general election, the former work and pensions secretary told Times Radio: “There’s no doubt that we have a demographic problem in the Conservative Party.
“In fact, the age at which you’re more likely to vote Conservative than for any other party is something in your 60s, and that is clearly untenable.
“I think what that speaks to is the fact that this isn’t just a challenge that is about leaping onto some wonderful ideological square that will suddenly see all problems resolved.
“It’s about some deep, painstaking work to work out how we start to attract younger electors. And I think this point about the age profile of those that are supporting conservatives really underscores the depth of the challenge that we have. But it is not insurmountable.”
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