2024 Conservative Party leadership election
4 September – 31 October 2024
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| Turnout | 72.8% ( 10.6 pp) | ||||||||||||
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The 2024 Conservative Party leadership election was announced on 5 July 2024 when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared his intention to resign as Conservative Party leader following the party's defeat at the 2024 general election. The leadership contest began on 24 July and ended on 31 October. On 2 November, Kemi Badenoch was announced as the winner of the members' ballot.
Six candidates stood for the leadership: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat. Four were eliminated in a series of votes, until two remained to stand in the final ballot, which Conservative Party members voted in. On 4 September, Patel was eliminated in the first round of voting, with Jenrick outperforming expectations by coming first. On 10 September, Stride was eliminated in the second round and went on to endorse Cleverly.
Following a strong performance at the Conservative Party Conference, Cleverly emerged as a frontrunner by coming first in the third round of voting, whilst Tugendhat was eliminated. Despite this, Cleverly was eliminated in a close fourth round of voting, leaving Badenoch and Jenrick to go head-to-head in a members' vote.
Badenoch won the head-to-head and was elected Conservative leader on 2 November 2024. She appointed Stride, Patel, Jenrick and later Cleverly to her shadow cabinet.
In January 2026, Jenrick defected to the Reform UK party.