Yahoo News Could Robert Jenrick be the next Conservative Party leader? The bookies think so
Newark MP Robert Jenrick, the only Conservative in Nottinghamshire to cling on to his seat, is being tipped to become the next leader of the party. Jenrick, who beat Labour's Saj Ahmed by around three thousand votes, is one of several names being tipped for the top job when Rishi Sunak inevitably announces his departure.
Many people blame Mr Sunak for the party's poor performance, suggesting that the Conservatives may have performed better if the election had been held later in the year, with interest rates potentially coming down and flights to Rwanda giving them a stronger voice on immigration.
Now party loyalists are looking at who might come next, and Mr Jenrick is the fourth favourite with Paddy Power, at 15/2. Kemi Badenoch is 2/1, Tom Tugendhat is 7/2 and Priti Patel is 13/2.
Mr Jenrick is ahead of Suella Braverman and Jeremy Hunt, with Reform leader Nigel Farage, former MP Boris Johnson and Lord David Cameron next in line according to bookies.
Speaking to the BBC, Kay Cutts, who previously led Nottinghamshire County Council, said: "I think (Jenrick) has the capabilities. He's a very clever man, he's taken the Newark seat and looked after it extremely well.
"He's come out recently - I think we've seen the real Robert Jenrick stand up, he's felt that the policies we've been following are probably not Robert Jenrick's policies and not Conservative policies."
Last month Mr Jenrick denied he was firing the first shot in the race to replace Mr Sunak when he wrote an opinion piece dubbed by The Mail on Sunday as him “effectively setting out his manifesto”. Mr Jenrick used the article to say the Conservatives are the “natural home for Reform voters” and that former prime minister Boris Johnson “must always have a place” in the Tories, including in Parliament, should he wish to have one.
The MP for Newark resigned as a minister last December as he claimed the then-draft legislation designed to revive the Rwanda deportation policy did “not go far enough”.
Mr Jenrick last month claimed Mr Sunak’s administration was “turning a corner” in its efforts to reduce net migration. He added in a nod to Reform: “We have to build a coalition of voters and propose policies which will fix people’s problems – be that on migration, public services reform, the cost of living, or housing.
