Kemi Badenoch has won the contest to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader.
The former business secretary beat former immigration minister Robert Jenrick in a ballot of Conservative members — winning by about 10,000 votes.
The result was announced by Bob Blackman, the chairman of the influential 1922 Committee of backbenchers, at 11.00 am on Saturday.
Badenoch and Jenrick reached the last round of the contest after a series of votes by Conservative MPs reduced the field of contenders from six to two.
Badenoch’s campaign centred on “first principles” including family, freedom and personal responsibility, while Jenrick unveiled a raft of detailed policy pledges on capping migration and withdrawing from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
On 4 September, former home secretary Priti Patel was the first to leave the contest. She was followed by Mel Stride on 10 September, and later by Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly.
Following a strong performance at the Conservative Party Conference, Cleverly had emerged as a frontrunner and finished first in the third round of voting. But the former foreign secretary unexpectedly crashed out in the fourth round of voting, leaving Badenoch and Jenrick to go head-to-head in the final membership stage.
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The Conservative herd moves behind Kemi Badenoch
On Friday, Cleverly told the Financial Times of his intention to return to the backbenches following the contest. Meanwhile, during the campaign, Jenrick had vowed he would serve in Badenoch’s cabinet.
The leadership race was triggered after Rishi Sunak announced his intention to resign as Conservative leader following the general election on 4 July, which saw his party return just 121 MPs.
The result comes after a YouGov poll found only one in eight Britons (12 per cent) have a favourable opinion of Badenoch. 45 per cent of Britons have an unfavourable view of the new Conservative leader, while 43 per cent say they “don’t know” how they feel about Badenoch.
According to YouGov, a significant proportion of Conservative voters already have negative opinions of the new Tory leader. Three in ten (29 per cent) have an unfavourable view of Badenoch; 35 per cent have a favourable view.
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