The latest register of members’ interests sheds some light on the financial support of Tory leader hopefuls. By the end of last month, candidates raked in the cash from top Tory donors, with Jenrick outgunning his rivals raising £250,000. Notably, the firm owned by Nadhim Zahawi’s wife was one of his top donors. Meanwhile, Badenoch’s team comes in second, raising just under £200,000, and Patel garnered £180,000, though sadly for her donors, the result hasn’t been Priti. It’s worth remembering these are just the donations published so far. There’s still another two months to go…
The final four on Tuesday next week will have to hand £50,000 to the Tory party, with the last two having to fork out a further £150,000 cheque to the “broke” CCHQ under the ‘pay-to-play’ rules. Money talks…
As some predicted, the Priti Patel has been voted out of the Tory leadership contest, as Mel Stride (who Guido is told “no one dislikes“) managed to cling on. Here’s the breakdown of the votes:
Robert Jenrick: 28
Kemi Badenoch: 22
James Cleverly: 21
Tom Tugendhat: 17
Mel Stride: 16
Priti Patel: 14
Next Tuesday will see the 5th candidate voted out, whittling it down to four. The contest continues to drag on…
Priti Patel is launching her leadership bid with a speech in London. Slogan: Experience. Strength. Unity…
Watch live as Conservative Party leadership contender @pritipatel speaks at an event in London https://t.co/x0EzT9Nsva
— PA Media (@PA) August 30, 2024
Patel’s team has produced tour merchandise for the event. Swanky…
Leadership activity is ramping up ahead of Wednesday’s first round ballot. More events on the way…
Techne have carried out polling of the public for the Tory leadership campaign. The pollster’s previous survey of Tory Party members had Cleverly ahead on 26% of party support followed by Priti on 20%. Now a 1003-person sample of GB adults from 2-12th August has similar results among voters. Team Cleverly getting its money’s worth…
Cleverly and Priti lead the public both in terms of a simple “I like” question and their first preference for next Tory leader. In head-to-heads Cleverly came out on top – the closest result was against Tugendhat at 19% to 14% in Cleverly’s favour. Over 60% say they don’t know or wouldn’t vote every time. Leg work to be done…
Hilariously the fictional candidate “Tom Evans” was in voters’ third preference more popular than over half of leadership contenders. He’s neck and neck with Mel Stride on first preference too. Some Tories may be brought back to earth with that one…
Former Tory Deputy Chair Jonathan Gullis has found a new role after losing his seat. His name is now listed on the notice board at Talk towers, where he’ll be hosting Kevin O’Sullivan’s show for the first time this Friday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. He’s a YouTuber now…
Gullis has been spinning for Tory leadership candidate Priti Patel since the race began. Guido wonders whether he’s eyeing up his options in case he’s made redundant from yet another role…
Tory leadership contenders are only starting to declare this week. Behind the scenes it has been a flurry of activity for some time. Robert Jenrick had new MPs over to his Westminster pad for drinks last week as hopefuls fire out countless invites to Tory MPs for a quiet chat or drink. Guido hears some invites have been sloppily fired out to organisers of rival campaigns…
Leadership operations are being run by informal whips (usually close friends) who sound out support among MPs (which is often done by the hopeful themselves), and spinners who brief the media offensively and defensively. Guido gives you the guide to the teams so far below…
Badenoch
- Spinners: Dylan Sharpe.
- Whips: Julia Lopez, Alex Burghart.
Cleverly
- Spinners: Callum Price, Alice Hopkin, Joe Tetlow.
- Whips: Gagan Mohindra, Peter Fortune.
- Video: Brandon Hattiloney.
Jenrick
- Spinners: Tom Milford, Sam Armstrong.
- Whips: Danny Kruger.
Patel
- Spinners: James Starkie.
- Whips: Greg Smith, Saqib Bhatti.
Tugendhat
- Spinners: Lauren Maher, helped by Pete Backhouse.
- Whips: Karen Bradley (close friend Alicia Kearns is supporting).
- Campaign Manager: Guy Miscampbell, helped by Ben Mallet, and Will Walden.
Mel Stride
- Whips: Himself.
- Spinner: James Heywood.
Braverman and Atkins are two other names bandied about – they don’t have fully fledged teams. At the 1922 Committee meeting last week Rebecca Harris said that Tory whips wouldn’t be endorsing leadership hopefuls and instructed MPs not to discuss it with them. The whips who did want to endorse candidates have left the whips office accordingly…
