Badenoch or Jenrick: Where will the Tories go next?

After a catastrophic election which saw them suffer their worst election result in history, it remained to be seen who the Conservatives would turn to.

Would the Tories target centrist voters who switched to the Liberal Democrats and Labour, or would they steer to the right to fight off a resurgent Nigel Farage? Now the answer is much clearer.

Either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick will become the leader of the Conservative Party after surviving numerous rounds of voting. The most recent round saw bookies favourite James Cleverly eliminated after tactical voting from his supporting MPs went awry.

The two remaining candidates will take their case to party members who have until October 31 to vote, with the winner being announced on November 2.

What is notable about the final two candidates is that both Badenoch and Jenrick represent the right of the Conservative Party, highlighting a serious deviation from previous leadership races as recent contests often featured a candidate from the centre and a candidate from the right as the final two.

So, who are the final two candidates and what do they stand for?

Kemi Badenoch, the former Business Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities is seen as being more direct and charismatic than Jenrick. However, her directness can sometimes lead to controversy. During an interview with ‘Times Radio,’ she said that maternity pay was ‘excessive’ and had gone ‘too far.’

Robert Jenrick has held numerous cabinet positions, but he is most famously known for resigning as the Minister for Immigration over the infamous ‘Rwanda scheme’ due to his frustrations that the bill did not go far enough to tackle immigration. Jenrick has been accused of changing his political opinions to suit the current landscape. He was elected in a by-election in 2014 after aligning himself as a centrist and an ally of then Prime Minister David Cameron. Since then, he has attached himself to the right of the party.

Badenoch ran her campaign on returning the Conservatives to their core values believing the election defeat was down to being ‘too left-wing.’  Her campaign, named Renewal 2030, has not focused on fleshing out any policies that would be enacted under a Badenoch government but rather focused on principles.

During the Conservative party conference, Jenrick laid out five key changes he would make to the party to take the fight to Labour. These were, a cap on immigration, opposing Labour’s plans for net zero, reducing the size of the state, building more houses and defending ‘British culture’

Both candidates see cutting immigration as a key priority. However, they approach the issue in different ways. Jenrick favours ditching the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) as he believes it has made it impossible to secure our borders. Whilst Badenoch believes deeper reform to immigration should be a priority over leaving the ECHR.

Whoever becomes leader will have the monumental task of revitalising a broken and divided party and will face competition from both Labour and Reform UK.