A SHOCK RESULT in the Conservative leadership election has seen Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick face off as the final two.
Shadow Home Secretary James Cleverly was unexpectedly knocked out of the competition yesterday, having been the favourite after the previous round of voting.
It’s been alleged that Cleverly’s supporters had been involved in an attempt to co-ordinate vote-sharing to engineer a place for himself and a less-threatening rival in the final heat.
Audible gasps in room at result - James Cleverly was 18 points ahead y'day.
— Pippa Crerar (@PippaCrerar) October 9, 2024
I've spoken to Tory MPs today who were voting for their preferred *second* candidate in final two - all were working on basis Cleverly was safe.
"The most sophisticated electorate in the world" 🤨
Sources close to both Cleverly and Jenrick have denied that such tactical voting had taken place.
In yesterday’s vote, Badenoch topped the poll on 42, closely followed by Jenrick on 41, and the favourite Cleverly received 37 votes.
The final result will be announced on 2 November.
Jenrick is expected to make a speech later as the final leg of the contest begins.
Badenoch came to the notice of Irish audiences in February when her then-Department pulled funding for Irish-language rap trio Kneecap.
Kneecap said in February that while its application to the scheme was “approved and signed off” by an independent selection board, it was later “blocked directly” by the British government.
Their application was for the Music Export Growth Scheme, in which 67 artists received funding totalling £1.6 million.
The scheme is part-funded by the UK’s Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
At the time, Badenoch for the UK Minister for Business and Trade.
In a statement to The Journal in February, a spokesperson for Badenoch said:
We fully support freedom of speech, but it’s hardly surprising that we don’t want to hand out UK taxpayers’ money to people that oppose the United Kingdom itself.
A day later, Kneecap launched a legal challenge against the British government decision to block them from the scheme.
Belfast-based Phoenix Law took on the case, acting alongside Derry GAA legend and barrister Joe Brolly – the case is due to be heard on 14 November.
Meanwhile, Badenoch has been described by UK media as “anti-woke” and has pledged to “always fight against left-wing nonsense”.
She has also called for a “hard-nosed” policy on immigration and used a Telegraph article to say that not all cultures are “equally valid”.
“We cannot be naïve and assume immigrants will automatically abandon ancestral ethnic hostilities at the border, or that all cultures are equally valid. They are not,” said Badenoch.
Robert Jenrick meanwhile attracted some controversy recently when he said he “would be voting for Donald Trump” if he were an American citizen.
Asked about this on Sky News, Jenrick said: “Ultimately, it’s a decision for the people of the United States.
“And if I was lucky enough to lead our party, I would work well, I hope constructively, with whoever is president of the US.”
And earlier this year, he said a future Tory Government must be ready to rip up the Windsor Framework and “take back full control”.
The framework created a red and green lane system to minimise checks on goods coming from Britain to Northern Ireland, which are not intended for further travel into the EU.
“It isn’t good enough that Northern Ireland is in limbo, deprived of many of our new freedoms, or that British governments cannot make reforms without widening the gap between us,” wrote Jenrick in the Telegraph.
“No self-respecting country would tolerate this indefinitely. So the Windsor Framework cannot last,” he added.
He’s also called for every entry point to the UK to feature a Star of David as a “symbol that we support Israel”.
Jenrick also vowed to move the British Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if he were to become British prime minister.
“If the Foreign Office or the civil servants don’t want to do it, I will build it myself,” he said last month.
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