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Full results for all candidates below | |||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 72.8% ( 10.6pp)[1] | ||||||||||||
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The2024 Conservative Party leadership election was announced on 5 July 2024 when then-Prime MinisterRishi Sunak declared his intention to resign asConservative Party leader following the party's defeat at the2024 general election. The leadership race commenced on 24 July and concluded on 31 October.[2] On 2 November,Kemi Badenoch was announced as the winner of the members' ballot, becoming the firstblack leader of any major UK political party, the fourth female Conservative leader and the second consecutive Conservative leader to be non-White.
Six candidates stood for the leadership: Kemi Badenoch,James Cleverly,Robert Jenrick,Priti Patel,Mel Stride andTom Tugendhat. Four were eliminated in a series of votes, until two remained to stand in the final ballot, which Conservative Party members voted in. On 4 September, Patel was eliminated in the first round of voting, with Jenrick outperforming expectations by coming first. On 10 September, Stride was eliminated in the second round and went on to endorse Cleverly.
Following a strong performance at theConservative Party Conference, Cleverly emerged as a frontrunner by coming first in the third round of voting, whilst Tugendhat was eliminated. Despite this, Cleverly was unexpectedly eliminated in a close fourth round of voting, leaving Badenoch and Jenrick to go head-to-head in a members' vote.
Badenoch won the head-to-head and was elected Conservative leader on 2 November 2024, becoming the first black Briton to lead a major party. Stride, Patel, Jenrick and later Cleverly would all be appointed to hershadow cabinet.
On 7 July 2022,Boris Johnson resigned as Conservative leader and Prime Minister afterdozens of ministers resigned from his government following a slew of scandals and controversies, includingPartygate, that marred the final few months of his premiership, culminating in theChris Pincher scandal.[3] Aleadership election was triggered to replace him, in whichRishi Sunak andLiz Truss were the final two candidates to be put forward to party members after a series of MPs' ballots. Truss won the contest, beating Sunak in the members' vote 57% to 43%.[4] She assumed leadership of the party on 5 September 2022, and became Prime Minister the following day.[5]
Truss's premiership would turn out to be the shortest of any Prime Minister in history, lasting just 49 days. Truss's tenure oversaw thedeath and state funeral of Elizabeth II, which caused government business to be suspended during the 10-daynational mourning period from 8–19 September. On 23 September 2022, in response to thecost-of-living crisis, Truss'sChancellorKwasi Kwarteng announced a 'mini-budget', which introduced large-scale tax cuts and borrowing. It caused the value ofpound sterling to crash, sliding to an all-time low against theUS dollar. The mini-budget was widely criticised and its policies were gradually reversed over the following three weeks. The Conservatives' opinion poll ratings also began to fall sharply in the weeks following the announcement, dipping to around 20% as they trailedLabour by over 30% in some polls.
Truss dismissed Kwarteng without explanation on 14 October 2022 and replaced him withJeremy Hunt. By 17 October, pressure was beginning to mount on Truss's premiership and five Conservative MPs were calling for her resignation. On 19 October, Home SecretarySuella Braverman resigned after admitting to having used her personal email address to send a Cabinet document and her resignation letter was highly critical ofTruss's government. Later that evening, a parliamentary vote on a debate to banfracking — which was opposed by the government — descended into chaos over confusion whether it was being treated as a confidence vote in the government, compounded by speculation that the chief whip and deputy chief whip had resigned, and by allegations, later refuted, that some Conservative MPs had been manhandled in the division lobby. On 20 October, the following day, Truss announced she would resign as Prime Minister and Conservative leader shortly, triggering asecond leadership election to find her replacement.[6]
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The timetable for the October 2022 leadership election was much shorter than the July one. An expedited process was set out; candidates were required to obtain 100 nominations from fellow Conservative MPs before 2 pm on 24 October, and an MPs' ballot followed by an online members' ballot was to be held shortly thereafter if more than one candidate received more than 100 nominations. Only two candidates announced their intention to stand: Sunak andPenny Mordaunt. There was intensive speculation that Johnson would initiate a bid for a return to the top post; at one point he was expected to stand and even received 62 nominations from MPs, but he subsequently declined to enter the race.
As only Sunak met the required threshold among MPs, receiving 197 nominations to Mordaunt's 27, Mordaunt withdrew from the leadership race two minutes before nominations closed and Sunak was left the only candidate remaining, enabling him to win the contest and become Conservative leader without an MPs' ballot or members' vote. Sunak became Prime Minister the next day, on 25 October.[7][8]
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Sunak said that Truss "was not wrong" to want to improve growth and that he "admired her restlessness to create change", but admitted that "some mistakes were made", and that he was elected prime minister in part to fix them. He promised to "place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda". In an almost immediate reversal of Truss's policy, Sunak reinstated the ban onfracking on 26 October 2022 as outlined in the2019 Conservative manifesto.
Sunak was faced with the task of rebuilding the Conservatives' reputation which had been significantly damaged by thecontroversies and scandals of the previous year and theTruss ministry. While their poll ratings recovered slightly over the following months, it still wasn't enough to bring them back to pre-Truss levels. Sunak contested his firstlocal elections as leader on 4 May 2023, where the Conservatives suffered heavy losses. Two months later, on 20 July 2023, they lost two seats in by-elections;one to Labour andone to the Liberal Democrats. Their fortunes remained unchanged throughout policy changes of the following year, such as the shelving of theHS2 northern phase in October. The Conservatives lost two further seats in by-elections on 15 February 2024.[9][10]
In March 2024, there were suggestions that Sunak could face a leadership challenge before the upcominggeneral election — which was expected within the calendar year — if the Conservatives perform poorly at thelocal elections on 2 May.[11][12][13] Sunak however said he would resist a challenge, even if that ends up being the case.[14][15] As predicted, 2 May saw grim showing for the Conservatives, who suffered their worst local election results since1996. Additionally, they lost another seat to Labour in theBlackpool South by-election, and narrowly lost theWest Midlands mayoral election in a knife-edge vote. Sunak's premiership was described as more stable than that of his two predecessors, while still not being able to represent a turnaround for the Conservatives.[16]
On 22 May 2024, in a surprise announcement, Sunak called ageneral election for 4 July.[17]
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Labour won the general election in a landslide, ending 14 years of Conservative government. Sunak conceded the election at 4:40 am on 5 July. The Conservatives experienced the largest defeat in its history, being reduced to 121 seats on a vote share of 23.7 per cent. It lost 244 seats, including those of twelve Cabinet ministers and that of former Prime Minister Truss.[18] It also lost all its seats in Wales.[19]
Subsequently, Sunak said in his final speech as Prime Minister that he would resign as leader of the party once a successor was elected.[20]
In early July, shortly after the general election, reports suggested thatDanny Kruger andJohn Hayes, prominent MPs on the right of the party, were going to support the prospective leadership candidateRobert Jenrick. This was seen as an early setback forSuella Braverman, since both Kruger and Hayes previously campaigned for her bid to succeed Boris Johnson inJuly 2022.[21][22][23] Thei reported that following Braverman's controversial speeches regarding thepride flag, multiple Conservative MPs believed she had lost her support among her colleagues and could defect toReform UK.[24] Sources in both parties suggested Braverman was expected to defect, potentially following the Conservative leadership election if she doesn't win.[25] Braverman did not stand, but said she could have surpassed the ten MP threshold to do so.[26]
James Cleverly,Tom Tugendhat,Robert Jenrick,Mel Stride,Priti Patel andKemi Badenoch were the confirmed candidates at the deadline of nominations on 29 July.[27] Tugendhat and Cleverly were pitching themselves as more moderate, centre-ground candidates, while Badenoch, Jenrick and Patel were competing for the vote of the party's right-wing, and Stride is seen as being between the two groupings.[27][28]
Bob Blackman,1922 Committee chair, announced that he would give out formal warnings, or "yellow cards", if they briefed against their rivals.[29]
Ipsos reported that there was widespread apathy around the election, with 62% of people saying that they did not personally care who became the leader.[30]
Cleverly's elimination in the final MPs' ballot surprised many. It was speculated that some of Cleverly's supporters had voted for other candidates, presuming Cleverly would be safe, in order to pick an easier rival against him in the members' vote,i.e. a failure oftactical voting.[31][32][33]
As of the end of the campaign, Jenrick raised £480,000 towards his campaign, while Badenoch raised £422,500.[2]
The elected chair of the1922 Committee,Bob Blackman, suggested prior to the election that the party must take its time in choosing a leader.[34] Following the election, he said that he expected Sunak would not be the leader by theConservative Party Conference, which was held at the end of September.[35]
The 1922 Committee met to decide the schedule of the election on the 22 July. The leadership race is expected to last for a little over three months with Sunak's successor being confirmed on 2 November. The timetable of key dates is in the table below. Conservative Party Conference will act as a 'beauty parade' for the remaining candidates.[36][37]
In addition to the voting timetable below, the Conservatives "pay to play" rules required the final four candidates, as decided by Conservative MPs on 10 September, to pay £50,000 to CCHQ.
Following the last round of MPs voting, the final two candidates were required to pay another £150,000 to the central party headquarters.[38]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 24–29 July | Nomination period; potential candidates must gather the support of ten fellow Conservative MPs to qualify for the first MPs' ballot.[39] |
| 4 and 10 September | Conservative MPs vote in two ballots to reduce to four candidates.[37] |
| 29 September – 2 October | TheConservative Party Conference takes place, where each of the four remaining leadership hopefuls give a speech.[37] |
| 8 and 9 October | Conservative MPs vote in two more ballots, where candidates are reduced to two finalists.[40] |
| 10–31 October | An online ballot of the final two candidates takes place for all Conservative party members.[37] |
| 2 November | The result of the ballot is announced, and the winner becomes the leader of the Conservative Party.[37] |
In June 2024, during the campaign for the 2024 general election,The Guardian reported that leadership hopefuls were already lobbying for support from MP candidates for a potential upcoming leadership election, which was seen as likely given that opinion polls showed the Conservatives on course for a heavy defeat.[41]The Times also reported that bothPenny Mordaunt andKemi Badenoch registered website domains for a leadership campaign.[42] As Mordaunt lost her seat in the general election, her prospective campaign never came to fruition; the Conservative Party constitution states that the leader of the party must be a Member of Parliament.[43] Despite press speculation that former leader Boris Johnson might make another attempt to return to the position, this requirement likewise prevented him from doing so, as Johnson had not been an MP since June 2023.[44]
The following candidates declared leadership campaigns.
The following Conservative Party politicians explored a run but ultimately declined to stand or failed to receive the ten required nominations:
The following figures lost their seats in the 2024 general election and were ineligible to stand, but were discussed as potential candidates prior to electoral results.
The following were suggested by commentators as potential candidates for the leadership but declined to stand:
| Dates conducted | Pollster | Client | Sample size | Kemi Badenoch | James Cleverly | Robert Jenrick | Tom Tugendhat | Mel Stride | Priti Patel | Suella Braverman | Jeremy Hunt | Victoria Atkins | Esther McVey | Others | Don't know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3–4 October 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 784 | 32% | 25% | 19% | 12% | Eliminated | Eliminated | Did not run | – | 12% | |||
| 20–29 September 2024 | YouGov | Sky News | 802 | 27% | 16% | 24% | 16% | – | 17% | ||||||
| 26–27 September 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 812 | 36% | 13% | 25% | 13% | – | 13% | ||||||
| 11–16 September 2024 | Popular Conservatism[b] | N/A | 501 | 34.9% | 6.8% | 38.3% | 5.6% | – | 12.8% | ||||||
| 28 August–4 September 2024 | Popular Conservatism[b] | N/A | 444 | 30.4% | 5.2% | 38.3% | 3.8% | 2% | – | 20.3% | |||||
| 2–3 September 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 863 | 34% | 11% | 18% | 13% | 2% | 7% | – | 15% | ||||
| 14–19 August 2024 | Popular Conservatism[b] | N/A | 512 | 28.2% | 4.5% | 28.4% | 3.9% | 1.8% | 17.4% | – | 15.8% | ||||
| 6–15 August 2024 | YouGov | N/A | 903 | 24% | 14% | 12% | 16% | 2% | 11% | – | 19% | ||||
| 2–12 August 2024 | Techne | James Cleverly | 805 | 14% | 26% | 10% | 11% | 4% | 20% | – | 15% | ||||
| 5–8 August 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 917 | 33% | 10% | 19% | 10% | 2% | 8% | – | 18% | ||||
| 31 July–5 August 2024 | Popular Conservatism[b] | N/A | 468 | 23% | 5% | 24% | 3% | 2% | 21% | – | 22% | ||||
| 10–11 July 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 995 | 26% | 9% | 13% | 13% | – | 3% | 10% | – | 2% | 1% | 7% | 16% |
| July 2024 | YouGov[c] | QMUL andSussex University | 725 | 31% | 10% | 7% | 15% | – | 6% | 16% | 12% | 2% | – | – | – |
| Dates conducted | Pollster | Client | Sample size | Kemi Badenoch | James Cleverly | Robert Jenrick | Tom Tugendhat | Mel Stride | Priti Patel | Suella Braverman | Don't know | Wouldn't vote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23–24 October 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 828 | 55% | Eliminated | 31% | Eliminated | Eliminated | Eliminated | Did not run | 14% | – |
| 3–4 October 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 793 | 48% | 42% | — | — | 9% | – | |||
| 53% | — | 33% | — | 13% | – | |||||||
| 62% | — | — | 28% | 9% | – | |||||||
| — | 54% | 36% | — | 10% | – | |||||||
| — | 67% | — | 18% | 15% | – | |||||||
| — | — | 52% | 36% | 12% | – | |||||||
| 20–29 September 2024 | YouGov | Sky News | 802 | 45% | 38% | — | — | 10% | 7% | |||
| 41% | — | 38% | — | 13% | 7% | |||||||
| 49% | — | — | 35% | 11% | 6% | |||||||
| — | 39% | 42% | — | 13% | 6% | |||||||
| — | 43% | — | 34% | 13% | 11% | |||||||
| — | — | 46% | 34% | 14% | 6% | |||||||
| 26–27 September 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 806 | 59% | 30% | — | — | 11% | – | |||
| 50% | — | 37% | — | 14% | – | |||||||
| 63% | — | — | 27% | 10% | – | |||||||
| — | 37% | 51% | — | 12% | – | |||||||
| — | 48% | — | 30% | 22% | – | |||||||
| — | — | 58% | 31% | 12% | – | |||||||
| 2–3 September 2024 | Conservative Home[a] | N/A | 861 | 57% | 27% | — | — | — | — | 16% | – | |
| 51% | — | 34% | — | — | — | 15% | – | |||||
| 65% | — | — | — | — | 21% | 14% | – | |||||
| 61% | — | — | 28% | — | — | 11% | – | |||||
| 69% | — | — | — | 16% | — | 15% | – | |||||
| — | 36% | 48% | — | — | — | 16% | – | |||||
| — | 51% | — | — | — | 33% | 16% | – | |||||
| — | 47% | — | 30% | — | — | 23% | – | |||||
| — | 59% | — | — | 16% | — | 25% | – | |||||
| — | — | 58% | — | — | 23% | 19% | – | |||||
| — | — | 52% | 31% | — | — | 17% | – | |||||
| — | — | 61% | — | 20% | — | 19% | – | |||||
| — | — | — | 43% | — | 41% | 16% | – | |||||
| — | — | — | — | 29% | 48% | 23% | – | |||||
| — | — | — | 46% | 22% | — | 33% | – | |||||
| 16–27 August 2024 | JL Partners | The Mail on Sunday | 471 | 42% | — | — | 39% | — | — | 19% | – | |
| — | — | 32% | 44% | — | — | 23% | – | |||||
| — | — | — | 48% | — | 40% | 13% | – | |||||
| 34% | — | 35% | — | — | — | 31% | – | |||||
| — | — | 42% | — | — | 35% | 24% | – | |||||
| 38% | — | — | — | — | 29% | 33% | – | |||||
| 2–12 August 2024 | YouGov | N/A | 910 | 47% | 35% | — | — | — | — | 11% | 5% | |
| — | 51% | — | — | — | 36% | 8% | 5% | |||||
| — | — | 50% | — | 15% | — | 24% | 10% | |||||
| — | — | 48% | — | — | 32% | 13% | 7% | |||||
| 55% | — | — | — | — | 26% | 13% | 6% | |||||
| 48% | — | 33% | — | — | — | 11% | 8% | |||||
| 49% | — | — | 31% | — | — | 13% | 6% | |||||
| — | — | 38% | 36% | — | — | 18% | 8% | |||||
| 2–12 August 2024 | Techne | James Cleverly | 805 | 28% | 51% | — | — | — | — | 21% | ||
| — | 49% | 28% | — | — | — | 23% | ||||||
| — | 45% | — | — | — | 39% | 16% | ||||||
| — | 54% | — | 23% | — | — | 23% | ||||||
| — | 59% | — | — | 15% | — | 26% | ||||||
| 16–19 July 2024 | Techne | College Green Group | 1,002 | 29% | — | 29% | — | — | — | — | 30% | 12% |
| — | — | 32% | — | — | 31% | — | 27% | 12% | ||||
| — | — | 33% | 31% | — | — | — | 21% | 16% | ||||
| — | — | 36% | — | — | — | 28% | 21% | 15% | ||||
| 23–30 June | JL Partners | GB News | 502 | 31% | — | — | — | — | — | 35% | 14% | 20% |
| 30% | — | — | 30% | — | — | — | 20% | 20% | ||||
| 34% | — | 24% | — | — | — | — | 20% | 22% | ||||
| — | — | — | 31% | — | — | 37% | 15% | 17% | ||||
| — | 34% | — | — | — | — | 39% | 12% | 15% | ||||
| — | — | 25% | 31% | — | — | — | 25% | 19% | ||||
| — | — | 29% | — | — | 35% | — | 16% | 20% | ||||
| Dates conducted | Pollster | Client | Sample size | Kemi Badenoch | Suella Braverman | Tom Tugendhat | Robert Jenrick | Priti Patel | Don't know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16–19 July 2024 | Techne[d] | College Green Group | 1,002 | 52% | 45% | 52% | 55% | 47% | 30% |
| Dates conducted | Pollster | Client | Sample size | Penny Mordaunt[a] | Jeremy Hunt | Suella Braverman | Jacob Rees-Mogg[a] | Kemi Badenoch | Grant Shapps[a] | Others | None | Don't know |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13–20 June 2024 | Deltapoll | Helm Partners | 1,511 | 25% | 13% | 10% | 6% | 4% | 3% | — | 19% | 20% |
Electoral Calculus conducted amultilevel regression with poststratification (MRP) opinion poll from 11 to 15 October 2024 on behalf of Jack Lewy of the Robert Jenrick campaign, asking the general public how they would vote if respectively Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick were elected leader of the Conservatives. The results showed that Jenrick would perform slightly better in a general election than Badenoch.
| Dates conducted | Pollster | Client | Area | Sample size | Implied Conservative leader | Lab | Con | Lib Dems | SNP | Reform | Green | Plaid Cymru | Others | Majority / lead | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11–15 October 2024 | Find Out Now/Electoral Calculus (MRP) | Jack Lewy /Robert Jenrick | GB | 6,289 | Kemi Badenoch | Seats | 332 | 151 | 63 | 48 | 25 | 4 | 4 | 5 | Labour majority of 14 |
| Vote share | 29% | 22% | 12% | 4% | 21% | 10% | 1% | 1% | 7% | ||||||
| Robert Jenrick | Seats | 311 | 178 | 58 | 48 | 24 | 4 | 4 | 5 | Hung(Labour 15 short) | |||||
| Vote share | 28% | 23% | 12% | 4% | 20% | 11% | 1% | 1% | 5% | ||||||
| Dates conducted | Pollster | Client | Sample size | Kemi Badenoch | James Cleverly | Robert Jenrick | Priti Patel | Mel Stride | Tom Tugendhat | Suella Braverman | Others | Don't know/NOTA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4–7 October 2024 | Deltapoll | N/A | 2,108 | 7% | 13% | 8% | — | — | 9% | — | — | 62% |
| 14–16 August 2024 | Opinium | The Observer | 2,050 | 5% | 6% | 2% | 7% | 2% | 6% | — | — | 72% |
| 5–7 August 2024 | BMG Research | The i | 1,523 | 4% | 8% | 5% | 6% | 2% | 6% | — | — | 69% |
| 31 July – 2 August 2024 | Opinium | The Observer | 2,063 | 6% | 7% | 3% | 7% | 2% | 7% | — | — | 69% |
| 17–19 July 2024 | Opinium | The Observer | 2,050 | 5% | 8% | 3% | 5% | — | 6% | 8% | 6% | 60% |
| 21–25 June 2024 | JL Partners | GB News | 8,030 | 7% | — | 6% | 7% | — | 9% | 10% | — | 61% |
Incumbent leader Rishi Sunak did not vote in the ballots.[77]
| Candidate | MPs' 1st ballot: 4 September 2024[50] | MPs' 2nd ballot: 10 September 2024[52] | MPs' 3rd ballot: 8 October 2024 | MPs' 4th ballot: 9 October 2024 | Members' vote: 10–31 October | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | %[a] | Votes | ± | %[a] | Votes | ± | %[a] | Votes | ± | %[a] | Votes | % | |
| Kemi Badenoch | 22 | 18.6 | 28 |  6 | 23.5 | 30 | 2 | 25.2 | 42 | 12 | 34.7 | 53,806 | 56.5 |
| Robert Jenrick | 28 | 23.7 | 33 | 5 | 27.7 | 31 | 2 | 26.1 | 41 | 10 | 33.9 | 41,388 | 43.5 |
| James Cleverly | 21 | 17.8 | 21 |  | 17.6 | 39 | 18 | 32.8 | 37 | 2 | 30.6 | Eliminated | |
| Tom Tugendhat | 17 | 14.4 | 21 | 4 | 17.6 | 20 | 1 | 16.8 | Eliminated | ||||
| Mel Stride | 16 | 13.6 | 16 | | 13.4 | Eliminated | |||||||
| Priti Patel | 14 | 11.9 | Eliminated | ||||||||||
| Votes cast | 118 | 97.5 | 119 | 1 | 98.3 | 120 | 1 | 99.2 | 120 | | 99.2 | 95,194 | 72.8 |
| Abstentions | 3 | 2.5 | 2 | 1 | 1.7 | 1 | 1 | 0.8 | 1 | | 0.8 | ||
| Registered voters | 121 | 100.0 | 121 | 0 | 100.0 | 121 | 0 | 100.0 | 121 | 0 | 100.0 | 131,680 | 100.0 |
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