Two senior Tories have thrown their weight behind Tom Tugendhat to be the new Conservative Party leader.
Damian Green and Steve Baker, who lost their seats in the July 4 election but are influential figures in the party, endorsed shadow security minister Mr Tugendhat in a joint article for The Telegraph.
Mr Baker is an ardent Brexiteer, and former leader of the European Research Group, while Mr Green was chairman of the One Nation Group of Tory moderates.
They wrote: “We ought to choose to transcend old divisions of Leave versus Remain, One Nation versus Right. We cannot spend the next five years in recriminations over the past 10. We cannot spend our time in opposition seeking to expel one wing of the party or another.
They urged MPs not to turn to the “hard Right” in response to the drubbing the Conservative Party received at the general election.
“Some colleagues’ tone often meant that we were cast as a ‘hard-Right’ party or the ‘nasty’ party, leading voters to turn against us or to whichever party in their area was most likely to rid them of us,” they warned.
“That won’t do. Our leader must be someone who can communicate robust ideas with resolve and humility so that the nation is carried, not divided. For these reasons – not despite but because we are from different wings of the Conservative Party – we both see Tom Tugendhat as the individual to deliver the leadership we need.”
Those believed to be preparing leadership bids include Mr Tugendhat, shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch, shadow home secretary James Cleverly, and former ministers Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, and former cabinet minister Dame Priti Patel.
Ms Braverman has suggested the Conservatives should welcome Nigel Farage into the party and said that his Reform party “presents an existential threat to us electorally”.
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The 1922 Committee of backbenchers will set the rules and timeline for the race to succeed Rishi Sunak. There have been divisions in the party over how long the contest should take.
In a Conservative Home survey of 995 Tory Party members last week, Mr Tugendhat polled at 13% – in second place alongside Mr Jenrick, ahead of Ms Braverman (10%) and Mr Cleverly (9%).
Ms Badenoch polled first at 26%, with Ms Patel in sixth with 3%.
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