Kemi ahead in poll on leadership race
KEMI BADENOCH is the frontrunner to win the Tory leadership contest, a poll of party members shows.
The party’s housing spokesman was backed by 24 per cent of the 910 Conservatives surveyed by YouGov.
But the pollster said there was ‘some encouragement’ for her rivals as the ‘field remains open’.
Shadow security minister Tom Tugendhat, seen as the establishment candidate, came second on 16 per cent.
James Cleverly, the centrist former home secretary, was third on 14 per cent followed closely by Robert Jenrick, favoured by the Right of the party, on 12 and Dame Priti Patel on 11.
Shadow work and pensions secretary Mel Stride, a close ally of Rishi Sunak, came last – backed by just 2 per cent of those polled.
YouGov said Mrs Badenoch also fared best when party members were asked to choose between her and each of the other hopefuls.
She won all five head-to-heads put to a random selection of Tory members, beating Mr Tugendhat by 18 points, Mr Jenrick by 15 and Mr Cleverly by nine.
Mrs Badenoch has so far been backed publicly by eight serving Tory MPs, including those on both the Left and Right of the party who believe she would be a strong leader who could take the fight to Labour, as well as seeing off Reform UK.
Next month MPs will whittle down the field to the final four, who will make their pitch to party members in a conference ‘beauty pageant’.
MPs will then choose the final two candidates before members cast the decisive votes, with the winner announced on November 2.
One supporter of Mrs Badenoch said: ‘While the other campaigns are wasting money skewing the betting markets, or commissioning dubious polling that puts their guys first, in independent YouGov surveys and ConservativeHome readers’ polls, Kemi persistently has a big lead with Tory members. It confirms she is the person the party wants to take the fight to Labour.’
‘Winner named on November 2’