Dame Priti Patel has said she will stand to be Tory party leader, making her the fifth Conservative MP to throw her hat in the ring.
She joins Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as Tory leader.
She wrote on Twitter: “I am standing to be the new Leader of the Conservative Party. We must unite to win!
“I can lead us in opposition and unite our party and get us match fit for the next election, with unity, experience and strength.”
I am standing to be the new Leader of the Conservative Party.
— Priti Patel MP (@pritipatel) July 27, 2024
We must Unite to Win!
I can lead us in opposition and unite our party and get us match fit for the next election, with unity, experience and strength. #UnitewithPriti #UnitetoWinhttps://t.co/40VhD95mj3
She said she could deliver the “experienced and strong” leadership needed to unite the Tories’ disparate factions, in an article for The Telegraph on Saturday
As leader she would use the “huge talent pool…of Conservative Party members” to “solve the big challenges that Labour, the Lib Dems and Reform don’t have answers to”, she wrote.
Dame Priti is a longstanding Eurosceptic and prominent figure on the right of the party.
As home secretary she launched a points-based immigration system and signed the agreement with Rwanda to send asylum seekers to the country.
She resigned as home secretary after Liz Truss became Tory leader.
Shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Mr Sunak, and former home secretaries Suella Braverman are expected to put themselves forward before nominations close at 2.30pm on Monday.
Contenders need a proposer, seconder and eight other backers to stand.
The parliamentary party will narrow the field down to four, who will make their case at the Conservative Party conference, which runs from September 29 to October 2.
The final two, picked by the parliamentary party, will then go to a vote of party members in an online ballot that will close on October 31 with the result announced on November 2.
Dame Priti is the least popular contender, at minus 28 points and seven points respectively, according to polling by Savanta carried out between July 19 and 21.
Mr Tugendhat is the most popular potential contender among both the public, at minus three points, and 2024 Conservative voters, at 21 points, the research shows.
Mr Cleverly is second in the running, Savanta’s findings suggest, at minus nine points with the public and 19 points among 2024 Conservative voters.
