Why Conservative MPs on the right of the party should back Badenoch

Conservative Party members want Kemi Badenoch on the ballot and they would overwhelmingly back her.

The result of the third round of voting in the race to become leader of the Conservative Party has been announced:

Rishi Sunak 115 votes

Penny Mordaunt 82 votes

Liz Truss 71 votes

Kemi Badenoch 58 votes

Tom Tugendhat 31 votes

Tom Tugendhat has been eliminated and the fourth round of voting takes place tomorrow afternoon. The Truss campaign has said, and continues to say, that Kemi Badenoch should leave the race and throw her support behind Liz Truss. This is not going to happen, and nor should it. It smacks of desperation.

Last Thursday, Suella Braverman was eliminated from the contest after securing 27 votes. She quickly urged those MPs who supported her to switch their allegiance to Liz Truss; however, assuming that the extra seven votes Truss got today came from former supporters of Braverman (which may not be true), some 20 votes went elsewhere.

In a recent ConservativeHome survey, Conservative Party members said that if it was a run-off between Sunak and Truss, Truss would win 49-42 per cent. But, if it was a run-off between Sunak and Badenoch, Badenoch would win by 60-34 per cent - a massive 26 percentage points. Indeed, Kemi Badenoch would beat all the remaining candidates according to the run-off survey. It is clear that the membership of the Conservative Party not only wants Kemi Badenoch on the ballot, they would overwhelmingly support her. Members are not going to be happy if MPs deny them their choice.

For those MPs on the right of the Conservative Party (many of whom I know), I have a simple message: please accept that members want Kemi Badenoch on the ballot. I outlined my reasons for supporting her here two days ago. Nothing has changed, but the country is desperately crying out for change, and so are members of the Conservative Party.