Senior Tories Resist Pressure To Shorten Leadership Contest
2 min read
Senior Conservative MPs are not expected to shorten the contest to choose the party's next leader despite public calls to do so from some of the candidates.
Two of the four candidates to replace Rishi Sunak as Leader of the Opposition and leader of the Conservatives have today expressed support for truncating the contest, which is currently scheduled to finish on 2 November.
Robert Jenrick wrote in The Sun: "I support shortening the contest so the new leader can hold this Labour government to account for their broken promises when the eyes of the nation are watching.”
Tugendhat on Sunday told Times Radio he also supported a shorter contest.
Tories who agree with Jenrick and Tugendhat believe the next Tory leader should be in place before Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivers the Labour Government's Budget on 30 October.
One former Conservative MP who is at the party's conference in Birmingham to hear from the leadership hopefuls said the party had "missed an opportunity" by not making sure the process is finished before the end of October.
As things stand, however, Conservative party members will not choose Sunak's successor until the beginning of November after the four candidates have been whittled down to two by Tory MPs.
The 1922 Committee of Conservative MPs is steadfast in its refusal to adjust the timetable, PoliticsHome understands.
One member of the ruling body said choosing the next leader before the Budget risks Sunak's successor getting off to a bad start if they fail to respond effectively to Reeves.
A shadow cabinet minister agreed, saying: “Rishi is a safe pair of hands. He will be able to respond to Reeves with experience and knowledge. It is a nice way for him to go out as leader of the party. We shouldn’t be putting a new leader into that.”
One Tory party source also said there would be significant practical obstacles to shortening the timetable. It is thought that the ballots have already been arranged for the current timetable.
The other two candidates, James Cleverly and Kemi Badenoch, are understood to be comfortable with the current timetable. The latter today told Times Radio the length of the contest was “fine”.
Additional reporting by Adam Payne.
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