2024 Conservative Party leadership election

2024 Conservative Party leadership election

← Oct 2022 4 September – 31 October 2024 (2024-09-04 – 2024-10-31)
Full results for all candidates below
Turnout	72.8%[1] (members' vote)
Candidate Kemi Badenoch Robert Jenrick Fourth MPs' ballot 42 (35.0%) 41 (34.2%) Members' vote 53,806 (56.5%) 41,388 (43.5%)
Leader before election Rishi Sunak Elected Leader Kemi Badenoch

The 2024 Conservative Party leadership election was announced on 5 July 2024 when then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared his intention to resign as Conservative Party leader following the party's defeat at the 2024 general election. The leadership race commenced on 24 July and concluded on 31 October.^[2] On 2 November, Kemi Badenoch was announced as the winner of the members' ballot, becoming the first Black leader of any major UK political party, the fourth female Conservative leader and the second consecutive Conservative leader to be non-White.

Six candidates stood for the leadership: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat. Four were eliminated in a series of votes, until two remained to stand in the final ballot, which Conservative Party members voted in. On 4 September, Patel was eliminated in the first round of voting, with Jenrick outperforming expectations by coming first. On 10 September, Stride was eliminated in the second round and went on to endorse Cleverly.

Following a strong performance at the Conservative Party Conference, Cleverly emerged as a frontrunner by coming first in the third round of voting, whilst Tugendhat was eliminated. Despite this, Cleverly was unexpectedly eliminated in a close fourth round of voting, leaving Badenoch and Jenrick to go head-to-head in a members' vote.

Badenoch won the head-to-head and was elected Conservative leader on 2 November 2024, becoming the first black-Briton to lead a major party. Stride, Patel and Jenrick would all be appointed to her shadow cabinet.