Andy Street has refused to say if he will vote in the final stage of the Conservative leadership contest.
The Conservative former mayor of the West Midlands insisted he will not be endorsing either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, the final two candidates in his party’s leadership contest.
Street had endorsed Tom Tugendhat’s candidacy before the former security minister was eliminated from the race. Tugendhat secured the support of only 20 MPs in the first MP voting round conducted after the Conservative Party’s annual conference in Birmingham.
In his endorsement of Tugendhat, Street said the shadow security minister best embodied a “moderate, inclusive brand of Conservatism” that “focuses on real societal issues, not ideology.”
Street was asked on Monday morning whether he would be publicly backing either Badenoch or Jenrick, following his favoured candidate’s elimination alongside fellow Conservative moderate, former home secretary James Cleverly.
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Badenoch and Jenrick are both considered to be on the right of the Conservative Party.
Street, the former John Lewis boss, told BBC Radio 4 that “I was clear in the previous two rounds that I wanted a candidate from the centre”
“I backed Tom Tugendhat publicly, I’m not going to back anyone publicly now.”
But when asked if he will back either Badenoch or Jenrick privately by voting for them, Street added: “I will decide that myself. The answer to that is private.”
Pressed on whether either remaining candidate could take the party toward a better future, he responded: “Maybe. Maybe.”
Street’s refusal to indicate whether he will vote for a Conservative leadership candidate comes after Damian Green, a former MP and fellow moderate Tory, endorsed Badenoch last week.
Green, the former chair of the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs, urged Tory moderates to get behind the ex-business secretary.
Speaking to The Independent, Green said: “[Badenoch] and I clearly come from different Conservative traditions, but she is making interesting points about the issues that matter to voters, and she has a project for redefining conservatism to make it relevant in the new era.”
He went on: “Kemi clearly recognises the enormous task the party faces in making itself an effective governing machine again and in regaining the trust of the British people.
“This will not be done by lurching right or left chasing individual groups of voters, but by creating a positive vision of Conservatism around which the party can unite. I hope One Nation Conservatives can and will play a full role in this.”
But Green’s endorsement followed a statement by the Tory Reform Group (TRG) of moderate Conservatives which indicated that it, like Street, would not be endorsing either candidate.
“Both [Badenoch and Jenrick] have used rhetoric and focused on issues which are far and away from the party at its best”, the TRG said in a statement, adding that the group had also been “consistently disappointed by the lack of engagement from the two candidates chosen by MPs”.
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on X/Twitter here.
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