Recently on his LBC radio show, political commentator James O’ Brien explains why he doesn’t care who becomes leader of the opposition Conservative party. Given their dreadful record in the last government, I tended to agree with him.
But whoever replaces the unlamented Rishi Sunak should be of everyone’s concern. With the newly-elected Labour administration making mistake after mistake in its first few weeks in office, the Conservatives have a great opportunity to elect an opposition leader who will hold Prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and his cabinet to account.
However, this relatively easy task is being hampered by the fact that all of those MPs who put their hats in the ring were former cabinet ministers, each of them had some dubious records in office. There is also the fact that the leadership contest itself will take place over four months (the winner will be announced on November 2nd), which seems rather too long, particularly at the very time that Labour will be politically vulnerable, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves now planning a fresh round of austerity measures in her first proper budget. They will also have an unenviable task of trying to stop so much of their electoral support defecting to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, whose huge vote share led to their heavy defeat at the recent general election.
The six current contenders in the Conservative leadership race are:
James Cleverly (former Home secretary)
Tom Tugenhat (former Security minister)
Robert Jenrick (former Immigration minister)
Mel Stride (former Work and Pensions secretary)
Priti Patel (former Home secretary)
Kemi Badenoch (former Business secretary).
The new Conservative leadership will have a tough job ahead of them to repair the party’s damaged reputation. With a lot of public discontent with Labour right now, if they get it right, they could be back in power in 2029… or even earlier….