Jenrick voted to stay in the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum. But he came to prominence when he co-authored (with Rishi Sunak, no less) a Times op-ed endorsing Brexiteer Boris Johnson for leader.
Dropped from Johnson’s Cabinet team in 2021, not long after becoming embroiled in a controversy over a planning decision involving a Conservative donor, Jenrick made a government comeback as immigration minister under Sunak, but quit last year in protest at the government’s repeated failure to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.
The signs he was mulling a leadership bid were all there — ably assisted by Ozempic, he shed the pounds and got a snazzy new haircut. And he wooed influential right-wing MPs including Danny Kruger and John Hayes, who previously backed Jenrick’s old boss and failed leadership hopeful Suella Braverman.
Policy wise, Jenrick has pledged to leave the European Convention on Human Rights on day one if he wins the election and to cap immigration. Those will be popular ideas among Tory members, even if the practical details are … quite a bit harder to iron out. Jenrick also says he wants to do more on house building — and he’s racking up big donations.
Tom Tugendhat: The Cameron
Tom Tugendhat is the One Nation candidate in the contest, trying to tap into the same modernizing, centrist instincts as former Prime Minister David Cameron. That’s a tough sell to a Tory membership that picked Boris Johnson and then chaos merchant Liz Truss the last few time it was given a vote. He’s even channeled Labour’s Keir Starmer at points by pledging to return politics to the values of public service after years of internal party squabbling.
Elected in 2015, Tugendhat had served a long military career in Iraq and Afghanistan before entering politics. The shadow security minister is never happier than when pontificating on world affairs — and has even been sanctioned by China for strongly criticizing Beijing.
Aware the Tory membership is more right-wing than the British electorate, Tugendhat initially wrote about being prepared to leave the ECHR but later spoke about reforming the convention instead. He also supports capping immigration, a position advocated but never met in the Cameron years. Tugendhat has warned that Brits will “never vote for a party that they’ve stopped taking seriously,” and even apologized for the last government’s failings.
He’s had some … fun moments. Sharp-eyed online observers spotted that his campaign’s opening pitch spelled out “Turd” when read in a certain way. And he once sparked a Twitter storm by responding to his four-year-old daughter getting a Valentine’s day card by posting … an image of himself in full military gear with a gun. As you do.
Leave a Comment