The Conservatives are to start a three-month leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak this week, due to end with the announcement of a new Tory leader on 2 November.Nominations will open on Wednesday, with candidates needing the backing of 10 MPs to enter the first round of voting. MPs will narrow this down to four candidates, who will then have a chance to speak to party members at the Conservative conference which starts on 29 September.MPs will then whittle those down to two candidates, with the final winner chosen by Conservative Party members in an online ballot.Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, shadow home secretary James Cleverly declined to comment on whether he would put himself forward in the leadership contest, but did not rule out the possibility. He said he has been focused on “holding the new Labour government to account on my old portfolio, something that’s incredibly important, and that’s what I will be continuing to do, and we will see what happens once those nominations are open.” Pressed by BBC Breakfast, he agreed that his response was “not a no”. “The thinking that I and others will have done and will do about the leadership of the party is important and there is a timescale for that, and I’m not going to rush ahead of that timescale,” Mr Cleverly said.When asked who he would support if he did not put himself forward as a candidate for leader, he said that was “tomorrow’s work”. Mr Sunak’s ally Mel St …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnThe Conservatives are to start a three-month leadership contest to replace Rishi Sunak this week, due to end with the announcement of a new Tory leader on 2 November.Nominations will open on Wednesday, with candidates needing the backing of 10 MPs to enter the first round of voting. MPs will narrow this down to four candidates, who will then have a chance to speak to party members at the Conservative conference which starts on 29 September.MPs will then whittle those down to two candidates, with the final winner chosen by Conservative Party members in an online ballot.Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, shadow home secretary James Cleverly declined to comment on whether he would put himself forward in the leadership contest, but did not rule out the possibility. He said he has been focused on “holding the new Labour government to account on my old portfolio, something that’s incredibly important, and that’s what I will be continuing to do, and we will see what happens once those nominations are open.” Pressed by BBC Breakfast, he agreed that his response was “not a no”. “The thinking that I and others will have done and will do about the leadership of the party is important and there is a timescale for that, and I’m not going to rush ahead of that timescale,” Mr Cleverly said.When asked who he would support if he did not put himself forward as a candidate for leader, he said that was “tomorrow’s work”. Mr Sunak’s ally Mel St …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
