Tory leadership contenders as knives out for Suella Braverman after Sunak quits

Tory survivors of Thursday’s election wipeout are gearing up for a bitter, scrappy leadership race - as the knives come out for Suella Braverman.

The former Home Secretary today said there would be “no announcements” to come from her immediately - but she’s widely expected to throw her hat in the ring before too long.

She said: “We've just got to take our time, we've got to figure out what the situation is. It's been a really bad result. There's no two ways about it. Hundreds of excellent Tory MPs have been kicked out of office."

But a senior Tory source said there was “utter fury” at Ms Braverman over an article she published declaring the election “lost” days before polls opened - and praising Nigel Farage ’s Reform UK.

“I don’t agree with Mr Farage on everything,” Ms Braverman wrote in the Telegraph. “But we Tories need to reflect honestly and with humility to ask ourselves how a start-up party, with very little infrastructure, has galvanised the electorate and lured so many of our life-long supporters. Millions of traditional Tory voters simply aren’t wrong. In house after house, lifelong Conservatives are furious with our party. At worst, they feel betrayed and politically homeless.”

Two sources suggested Ms Braverman’s article had cost some candidates the election. “Some people lost by 10 or 15 seats,” one Tory source said. “While they were knocking on doors she was sitting writing op-eds slagging us off."

"The only reason she hasn’t been expelled from the party for that article is because the infrastructure, the 1922 Committee, doesn’t currently exist,” a former Tory minister told this newspaper.

The 1922 Committee of Tory MPs is in charge of agreeing the process and rules for picking a new leader. But the body dissolved when the election was called - and can’t be reconstituted until MPs are sworn in next week.

It’s understood Sir Graham Brady - soon to be Lord Brady after he was handed a peerage in one of Mr Sunak’s final acts as PM - will informally oversee the formation of the new committee next week. How long the contest will take will be up to the new committee - but senior Tory figures hope the process can be concluded “sooner rather than later” so the party can put up strong opposition to Keir Starmer ’s Labour government.

Mr Sunak intends to stay in place as Tory leader until his successor is appointed - seeing it has his “duty” to oversee the change of leadership. Tonight he appointed Tory MP Stuart Andrew as interim chief whip - replacing Simon Hart, who lost his seat on Thursday Night.

“I know there will be much frustration within the party about the disappointing election results we saw this week,” Mr Andrew said after his appointment. "Our focus now more than ever must be to come together as a united party. We will be ready and willing to provide the strong and effective Opposition to the government that the British public deserves.”

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who barely held onto his seat in the election, ruled himself out of the race - saying the “time has passed.” He is a two-time former leadership hopeful, having unsuccessfully stood against Boris Johnson in 2019 when Theresa May resigned, and again in 2022 after Mr Johnson's downfall.

His refusal to run may come as a disappointment to Tory centrists who want to prevent the party lurching to the right. Other top Tories expected to run to replace Mr Sunak are former Home Secretary James Cleverly, his predecessor Priti Patel and ex-Business secretary Kemi Badenoch.

One former Cabinet Minister told this newspaper the Conservative Party was “irrelevant” at the moment. Saying they hoped there would be a period of calm for the party in the near future, they added: “There’s no point setting out your policy platform now - nobody’s listening.”

Many on the right of the party are still hoping for Boris Johnson to return and save them from oblivion.

That would require him to run for and win a seat in the Commons, something he hasn't publicly ruled out.

And on Friday - just a day after the Tories' dramatic defeat - he published in a newspaper column a ten-point plan for how a future Conservative leader could take the party back into power.

"Last thought," he wrote. "when we get back in, don't be too hasty to get rid of successful election-winning leaders. As I never tire of telling people, some polls put us only two or three points behind, in the days before I was forced to resign in what was really a media-driven hoo-ha. As for Reform, it was regularly polling zero. Only pointing it out..."

The Conservative Party were eight points behind in the polls when Mr Johnson resigned, and on a downward trend. The "media-driven hoo-ha" he referenced was outrage over his defence of a senior Tory accused of sexual misconduct.

Meanwhile, a Tory who lost his seat in Thursday’s rout threw his hat in the ring...for the next series of Big Brother. Responding to a post on Twitter suggesting the reality show was looking for a “big political name”, ex-Bassetlaw MP Brendan Clarke-Smith tweeted: “Don't suppose they are still looking for people?" He lost the seat to Labour’s Jo White by nearly 6,000 votes.