Websites registered for Conservative leadership hopefuls as election looms

WEBSITES have been registered for suspected Conservative leadership hopefuls looking to replace Rishi Sunak.

With Thursday’s General Election looming large and polls suggesting it will be a torrid night for the Tories, many with their eye on the top job seem to be preparing to pounce - with several sites matching the names of likely contenders having been created or updated in recent months.

The website used for Kemi Badenoch’s leadership attempt in 2022, kemiforprimeminister.com, no longer exists. However, the site kemi4leader.com, which redirects to the Conservatives home page, was registered in West Yorkshire on April 18.

A separate one, backingbadenoch.co.uk, was also last updated on June 27.

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Meanwhile, former home secretary Suella Braverman set up the suella4leader.co.uk website to promote her campaign in the summer of 2022. The website was last updated on June 10 and sends users directly to Braverman’s personal website.

Braverman and Badenoch are understood to deny that the websites in their current form had anything to do with them or their teams.

Braverman is understood to have not used the website since the 2022 leadership campaign. A number of senior Conservatives have refused to deny harbouring leadership ambitions.

(Image: PA)

Badenoch, the business secretary, told GB News: “I said to everyone that I don’t want to talk about leadership debates because my constituents … say they don’t like us talking about ourselves.”

But she said the future of the party “needs to be one that occupies the whole of the centre-right, not just the centre, because that’s where we’re losing to Reform”.

Grant Shapps, the defence secretary, also refused to rule out running in an interview with the Sun on Sunday. He said: “Let’s see what happens.”

Last week it was revealed that Steve Baker, the Northern Ireland minister, wanted to throw his hat into the ring should he keep his seat.

Tom Tugendhat told Times Radio he has not ruled out putting his name forward either, while Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said any suggestion of his running was “total and utter nonsense”.