Kemi Badenoch issues eight-word warning to Robert Jenrick as Tory leadership race hots up
The Tory leadership race is well and truly hotting up with Mrs Badenoch warning that the "Conservative party will cease to exist if they choose the wrong leader".
The Tory leadership race is well and truly hotting up with just a few weeks until the winner is announced and Kemi Badenoch is marking her ground by issuing a warning to Robert Jenrick.
Mrs Badenoch tore into Tory members that the “Conservative party will cease to exist if they choose the wrong leader”.
In a brutal eight-word warning, the Tory leadership contender told members that they “have one chance to get this right”, adding that the current leadership race is an “existential” moment for the party.
As Mrs Badenoch and Mr Jenrick battle it out to be the next leader of the Conservative Party the shadow housing secretary told The Telegraph that she will be “Labour’s worst nightmare” and “there will be no second chance”.
She said: “If we get this wrong, there’s not going to be a party. There’s no second chance. We have one chance to get this right.
“This endless tossing out leaders as if they’re just disposable has been one of the things that has damaged the party brand.”
In the final round of voting among Tory MPs, Mrs Badenoch secured the highest number of votes, with 42 colleagues backing her, making her the favourite candidate among the bookies. If she is triumphant Mrs Badenoch will be the fourth female leader of the Conservative Party, while Labour are still yet to elect even one.
Jenrick was second with 41 votes and Cleverly was surprisingly knocked out with just 37 MPs backing him, despite coming top of the previous round's vote.
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At the centre of Mr Jenrick’s campaign is leaving the European Convention of Human Rights (EHRC), in a direct attack on this Ms Badenoch said: “Trying to recreate the referendum is not something people want to hear right now”.
While Mrs Badenock's battle is based on a pledge to reform the party under a "Renewal 30" banner - saying that is the first year they can be back in power.
She says on the Renewal 30 banner website: "In Government, we lost sight of what conservatism is. We talked right, but governed left. We thought we could just be managerially better than the other side.
"We forgot who we are and what we were winning for."
