Cleverly warns Tories against ‘bitter infighting’ as party prepares for leadership race

James Cleverly has warned against “bitter infighting” among the Tories, saying the party needs to “get our act together” before the race to replace Rishi Sunak as leader.

Mr Cleverly has been appointed to shadow his former role of home secretary after Labour’s landslide win gave the Conservatives their worst-ever election result.

Writing in The Times, he said the party needed to conduct a “sensible post-mortem on what went wrong and finding the right path forwards”.

His comments came after a fraught day for the Tories in which an MP accused the 1922 Committee of being “bent”, Suella Braverman called Reform an “existential threat” to the party and Kemi Badenoch reportedly used Rishi Sunak’s first shadow cabinet meeting to criticise his campaign and Mrs Braverman.

Mr Cleverly wrote: “We must remember two vital things. Firstly, it cannot descend into bitter infighting and finger-pointing. That is exactly how we ended up here. Secondly, we cannot delude ourselves that there are always simple answers, either to our problems as a party or the challenges we face as a country.”

A narrower offer will not win back voters that have been lost to the Left or Right, Mr Cleverly warned, adding: “We must get our act together. We need to unite in order to deliver.

“It will take humility and hard work, to recover our reputation for competence and integrity, to rebuild trust in our party, and unite behind a broad platform that will give people a reason to vote Conservative again.”

Last week, Mr Sunak last week announced that he would step down as party leader once the formal arrangements for choosing a successor were in place.

If he throws his hat in the ring, Mr Cleverly could face competition from high-profile Right-wingers Mrs Braverman and Mrs Badenoch.

Dame Priti Patel, who served as home secretary between July 2019 and September 2022, Robert Jenrick, a previous immigration minister, and Victoria Atkins, the former health secretary, could also put themselves forward.

Tory MPs usually vote to select the top two candidates to put forward as potential leaders, with the party membership choosing the ultimate winner. 

The rules and timeline will be set out by the backbench 1922 Committee, which has elected Bob Blackman as its new chairman.

Mark Francois, the Tory MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, claimed the vote to choose the new chairman was “bent” after he attempted to vote but was turned away. Voting took place in the Houses of Parliament between 5pm and 5.30pm on Tuesday, but some MPs were told in an email that they could vote until 6pm.

“This election was bent,” said Mr Francois said as he left the room. “I think the 1922’s level of competence has reached a new low.”

Mrs Badenoch reportedly criticised Mr Sunak in the first shadow cabinet meeting after his election campaign, calling his decision to leave D-Day commemorations early “disastrous” and saying colleagues including Penny Mordaunt would have kept their seats had he stayed longer in France.

She also reportedly said Mrs Braverman appeared to be having a “very public” nervous breakdown. Mr Sunak had reportedly opened the meeting with an apology.

Mrs Braverman, meanwhile, hit out at “liberal Conservatives” at an event in Washington and at a Popular Conservatism event in London, calling Reform UK an “existential threat” to the Tories.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary who lost his seat last week, was also at the event and spoke of the need to win back voters from Reform, which won five seats, including Clacton in Essex for Nigel Farage, the party’s leader.

Ms Braverman, appearing via a recorded video, said of the loss of her party’s 80-seat majority from 2019: “We were going to stop the wave of illegal migrants landing on our shores. We were going to cut taxes. We were going to stop the lunatic woke virus working its way through the British state.

“The harsh reality – this is a lesson we all need to learn and face up to – is that we did none of that.”

The Tories suffered a net loss of 251 seats at the election last week, leaving them with 121 MPs. Labour won a landslide with 412 MPs, ousting several senior Tory figures including Sir Jacob, Ms Mordaunt, a former Commons Leader; Grant Shapps, the ex-defence secretary, and Liz Truss, the former prime minister.