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Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has called on Suella Braverman to conduct the Conservative Party leadership contest “with civility” after she warned the party risks becoming “centrist cranks”.
Ms Braverman, who is poised to launch a leadership bid, said the party could do better than becoming “a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks”.
Speaking to The Telegraph, she said: “If we don’t recover the voters we deliberately, and arrogantly, spurned, we will turn the Conservative Party into the 21st century version of the 20th century Liberal Party.
“We can do better than being a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks, who make it our business to insult our should-be voters for not being as smug and self-righteous as we are.”
Quizzed about Ms Braverman’s comments on Sky News’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Lord Houchen said: “If we want to spend the next two, three, four, five months fighting with each other that goes to the cause of the election defeat just two weeks ago and I would implore Suella, as well as every other leadership contender, to conduct this leadership contest with civility. Let’s come together and let’s offer a positive option to the country.”
The Tees Valley mayor, the UK’s only Tory metro mayor, also outlined his three priorities for Rishi Sunak’s successor: “One, it shouldn’t be about the past. It should be about what is the offering for this country in the future.
“Two, I think any leadership contender needs to rule out a partnership or a coalition or whatever relationship with Reform. They are a symptom of the problem. They are not the cause of the problem for the Conservative Party.
“The third point is that there shouldn’t be any blue-on-blue attacks.”
Those also believed to be preparing leadership bids include Tom Tugendhat, shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, shadow home secretary James Cleverly, and former ministers Robert Jenrick and Dame Priti Patel.
Ms Braverman has suggested the Conservatives should welcome Nigel Farage into the party and said his Reform party “presents an existential threat to us electorally”.
The 1922 Committee of backbenchers will set the rules and timeline for the race to succeed Mr Sunak. There have been divisions in the party over how long the contest should take.
We’ve got some thinking to do. We’ve got to reflect on the results. I would favour taking the right amount of time to do that
In a Conservative Home survey of 995 Tory Party members earlier this month, Mr Tugendhat polled at 13 per cent alongside Mr Jenrick, with Ms Braverman on 10 per cent and Mr Cleverly on 9 per cent.
Ms Badenoch polled first at 26 per cent, with Dame Priti sixth with 3 per cent.
Meanwhile, former chancellor Jeremy Hunt said the party should “take our time” to choose a new leader if it needs to.
He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg programme: “This time next year, the only thing that will matter is not whether we have a new leader in place by October or December, but whether we have the right leader in place, someone who can earn back that trust that we lost.
“So I think, if we need to, we absolutely should take our time.”
Shadow science minister Andrew Griffith has also said the party must take time to reflect on what the British people told the party in its disastrous General Election defeat.
He told GB News the party should not race into a decision about its new leader.
“I think the most important thing is that we get it right,” he said. “We’ve got a job to do immediately to oppose this Government. That’s why we’ve now got a full shadow cabinet formed. So, there’s a job that needs to be done right now. We are out there doing it.
“The most important thing about any leadership contest is that we get the right leader for the right phase. Sadly, we’re going to have the luxury of some time in opposition. That was the message we heard loud and clear from the British people.
“We’ve got some thinking to do. We’ve got to reflect on the results. I would favour taking the right amount of time to do that.”
On Ms Braverman’s claims the party is at risk of becoming seen as full of “centrist cranks”, he said: “I don’t think that’s the number one thing that the British people want to hear from the Conservatives. They delivered a very clear message.
“They gave us one of our worst ever defeats. A lot of that, in my view, was as much about our conduct as our policies. I’m somebody who’s a low tax, traditional Conservative who believes in a small state while still providing a basic level of public services. I want to see taxes, for example, reduced – not increased, as Labour is threatening to do.”
