After an epic election defeat in July, opposition lawmakers have presented their party’s paying members with an unexpected choice of two candidates from the right.
The race to lead Britain’s vanquished Conservative Party narrowed to two finalists on Wednesday, as the party’s lawmakers in a surprise twist set up a clash between two right-wing candidates.
After four knockout rounds of voting, the lawmakers left two finalists standing: Kemi Badenoch, a favorite of the right who has said the party needs to fight against “nasty identity politics,” and Robert Jenrick, a rival hard-liner who has appealed to the right by promising to slash annual immigration numbers.
The choice of two right-wing candidates was completely unexpected, provoking gasps in the room when the vote totals were announced on Wednesday.
James Cleverly, a centrist who was buoyed by a well-received performance at the party’s recent conference, had surged to the front of the pack in the most recent vote by the party’s lawmakers. But he was unexpectedly eliminated on Wednesday.
Whoever wins will face a prolonged, painful job of rebuilding a party that suffered the worst electoral defeat of its modern history in July — losing voters not just to the victorious Labour Party but also to a hard-right anti-immigrant party, Reform U.K., and the more centrist Liberal Democrats.
The new leader will be selected in the next few weeks by the party’s dues-paying members, who number fewer than 170,000 and are generally older, wealthier and less ethnically diverse than the broader British population. The result of the vote is set to be announced on Nov. 2.
We are having trouble retrieving the article content.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.
Thank you for your patience while we verify access.
Already a subscriber? Log in.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
