London:

The UK’s Conservative Party leadership candidate Priti Patel has been eliminated from the contest after the first round of voting.

Ms Patel, who was the home secretary in former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, was running to succeed Rishi Sunak as the party’s leader. Mr Sunak stepped down from the post after the Conservatives lost the general election in July.

Former immigration minister Robert Jenricks came out on top with 28 votes followed by Kemi Badenoch with 22 votes. James Cleverly was in the third position as he secured 21 votes and Tom Tugendhat won 17. Mel Stride was fifth with 16 and the last was Ms Patel with 14 votes.

The next vote will take place next Tuesday after which four candidates would remain before the party’s annual conference at the end of September.

Multiple rounds of voting will take place after the conference from October 8. The voting will last three days until there are only two candidates left.

The MPs will then finally choose their leader, with the result announced on November 2.

During her term as home secretary, Ms Patel was known for her tough stance on immigration. She led the Conservative government’s flagship scheme to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda.

In her Tory leadership campaign, she had promised to unite the party and get it ready for the next general election.

Kemi Badenoch
| Photo Credit: Reuters

London

Six British lawmakers have announced that they are running to lead the Conservative Party in a contest that will decide whether the Opposition party tacks to the right or steers toward the political centre ground.

Contenders include former Foreign Secretary James Cleverly and lawmaker Tom Tugendhat from the party’s centrist grouping. Former Home Secretary Priti Patel and ex-Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch have support from the right of the party.

Former Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick and veteran lawmaker Mel Stride also have secured the required support of 10 Conservative lawmakers before the deadline on Monday. Ms. Badenoch, who came third in the party’s last leadership election in 2022, was the early favourite. The Nigeria-raised lawmaker used language reminiscent of Conservative icon Margaret Thatcher, saying the party should lead “a renewal for capitalism” built around a smaller state.”

In the wake of the party’s devastating election defeat this month, which saw it lose votes to parties on both right and left, Conservatives are split between moderates who want to try to win back centrist voters and hard-liners who want tougher migration and law and order policies to regain political territory lost to the Reform U.K. party led by anti-immigration firebrand Nigel Farage.

Britain’s Conservative Party will introduce mandatory national service for 18-year-olds if it wins the national election on July 4, comprising military or community participation, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Sunday.

Young adults will be able to choose between spending one weekend a month volunteering over a year, or taking up one of 30,000 spaces to spend a year in the armed forces, Sunak said.

The announcement followed Labour Party leader Keir Starmer’s comments on Saturday that he was in favour of allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote.

Sunak’s Conservatives lag Labour by a wide margin in opinion polls, which have shown little change in fortunes for the prime minister since his surprise election call last Wednesday.

“Britain today faces a future that is more dangerous and more divided. There’s no doubt that our democratic values are under threat. That is why we will introduce a bold new model of national service for 18-year-olds,” Sunak said in a statement.

The Conservative Party said the proposal would be funded by cracking down on tax avoidance and evasion, and by diverting money from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which existed to reduce regional economic inequality.

Labour politicians derided the announcement.

“The national service we need from our young people is to vote for change on the 4th of July,” said Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester.

Interior Minister James Cleverly told broadcasters there would be no criminal sanctions for skipping mandatory service but that people would be compelled to do it, without providing further details.

Asked by the BBC if forcing adults to volunteer was at odds with the Conservative Party’s liberal tradition, Cleverly said: “We force people to do things all the time.”

He cited compulsory education or training for teenagers until the age of 18 as an example.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)