Priti Patel is in second place
A new poll of Tory members has suggested that James Cleverly is the most popular candidate among party members.
The poll, conducted by Techne UK, found that Cleverly is the first choice candidate of 26 per cent of Tory members. Cleverly is currently the shadow home secretary and has held a number of senior ministerial positions over the last five years.
The former home secretary Priti Patel is in second place, with the backing of 20 per cent of members. Kemi Badenoch is on 14 per cent, Tom Tugendhat on 11 per cent, Robert Jenrick on 10 per cent and Mel Stride on 4 per cent.
Tugendhat and Stride are widely seen as the more moderate candidates in the contest, with Cleverly closer to them than to Badenoch, Patel and Jenrick, all of whom are pitching to the culture-warring right of the party.
This poll contrasts with an earlier survey of Conservative Party members carried out by the Tory-linked website Conservative Home.
That survey found that Kemi Badenoch was in the lead, with Robert Jenrick in second place.
Techne UK’s poll will no doubt be warmly received by the Cleverly campaign. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean he is the frontrunner in the contest.
That’s because Tory party members don’t get the chance to vote for all six of the candidates in the running. Instead, Conservative MPs will first take part in a series of ballots between September and October to reduce the number of candidates to two.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Simon Dawson: Number 10 – Creative Commons
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