Who are the candidates and what are the guidelines?

The battle to take over from Rishi Sunak as chief of the Conservative Party has been whittled all the way down to the ultimate two.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick stay in the contest, with James Cleverly – the earlier frontrunner – knocked out.

MPs have now had their ultimate say on which two candidates undergo to the ultimate vote. Party members will spend the second half of October selecting the final winner, with the end result introduced on 2 November.

Born in London and raised in Nigeria, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke grew to become the Tory MP for Saffron Walden in 2017 below her married title Badenoch.

Known for her strong views and no-nonsense type, her political heroine rising up in Nigeria was Margaret Thatcher, in response to Blue Ambition, a biography written by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft.

She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to check for her A-levels earlier than gaining a masters diploma in laptop programs engineering from Sussex University.

She grew to become extra Conservative partly as “a reaction to the very spoiled, entitled, privileged, metropolitan elite-in-training at university,” she informed a Spectator podcast.

Before coming into politics, the 44-year-old mom of three labored in IT and banking.

She held a collection of ministerial jobs below Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who promoted her to enterprise secretary.

But it’s arguably by means of her different former position – as minister for girls and equalities – that she has emerged as a darling of the fashionable Conservative proper for her stance on trans rights.

She first ran for Conservative chief in 2022 following Johnson’s resignation, and got here fourth regardless of beginning the race with a comparatively low-profile.

Launching her newest bid, she mentioned the Conservative Party wanted to “stop acting like Labour” to win again energy.

Robert Jenrick has reinvented himself as a right-winger after starting his political journey as a extra centrist determine and an in depth ally of former PM Rishi Sunak.

In December 2023, he resigned his position as immigration minister, saying Sunak’s emergency Rwanda laws didn’t go far sufficient.

And he has since been outspoken about what he sees as his occasion’s failure to ship on its guarantees to chop immigration when it was in energy.

In explicit, he has led requires the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

This helped him appeal to assist from MPs beforehand loyal to his former boss at the Home Office, Suella Braverman, who dominated herself out of the management contest earlier than it started.

The 42-year-old father of three was a company lawyer – and a director of public sale home Christie’s – earlier than coming into politics as the MP for Newark in 2014.

His Tory management pitch is that the occasion must confront arduous truths – and solely he could make the adjustments wanted to win the subsequent election.

In 2020, he was embroiled in controversy over his determination as housing secretary to grant planning permission for a housing growth in east London linked to a Tory donor.

In 2023, he made headlines once more for ordering that murals of cartoon characters at a reception centre for youngster asylum seekers in Dover be painted over.

More just lately, he admitted utilizing the weight reduction drug Ozempic, however mentioned he “didn’t particularly enjoy it” and went on to drop extra pounds by extra conventional means.

Party members will be capable of solid their vote between 15 October and 31 October.

They will make their selection by way of a safe on-line voting system, although this method has beforehand been criticised for its susceptibility to hackers and rogue state interference.

To be eligible to vote, occasion members should have been energetic for 90 days earlier than the poll closes, and to have been occasion members when nominations opened.

The new chief of the Conservative Party will likely be introduced on 2 November – at which level Sunak will formally stand down.