Kemi Badenoch joins Conservative leadership race

Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch has announced her candidacy to become the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, making her the sixth candidate in the race to replace outgoing leader Rishi Sunak.

Sunak resigned as leader after the party's poor performance in the recent election but will remain as acting leader until a successor is chosen.

In an article for Monday's edition of The Times, Badenoch stated that the Conservatives "deserved to lose" the 4 July election and criticised the party for being too left-wing in government.

"We talked right yet governed left. The public felt manipulated," she wrote. "Real leadership sets a principles-based vision about where to take the country and then inspires people to join that shared mission."

Badenoch also commented on Britain's asylum system, saying it "effectively opens borders to anyone willing to lie" and emphasised that the state should prioritise British citizens and focus on a narrower range of tasks since the Covid-19 pandemic.

Other candidates for the Conservative Party leadership so far include former interior minister Priti Patel, former security minister Tom Tugendhat, former foreign minister James Cleverly, former work and pensions minister Mel Stride, and former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

Suella Braverman, another former interior minister, had been considered a likely candidate but wrote in Monday's edition of the Daily Telegraph that she did not intend to run as too few lawmakers shared her views.

The leadership contest will have the party's elected lawmakers first narrow the field to four candidates who will present their cases at the Conservative Party conference in late September. The number of candidates will then be reduced to two, who will be put forward to a vote of all party members. The new leader will be announced on 2 November.

(With inputs from Reuters)