James Cleverly now clear favourite to be Conservative Party leader

Analysis by Dr Steve McCabe.

Transcript

00:00The last time, I'm going back to 1997, Tony Blair won and the Conservatives were out of power.

00:07They went through a succession of leaders and eventually got to David Cameron.

00:11And of course, Cameron was seen to be very centrist.

00:14But of course, Cameron committed to the faux pas, having won the 2015 election,

00:19which included a promise, because they were in coalition with the Liberal Democrats,

00:23to hold a referendum on continued EU membership.

00:27And of course, we know that that was what set the whole series of events that led to Theresa May,

00:32then Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sarnak.

00:35And of course, they're now out of power and looking for someone to take them forward.

00:39Well, this week, Mal Stride was eliminated from the Conservative Party leadership race

00:44following the second MP's ballot.

00:47Stride, the former Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, received just 16 votes,

00:52making him the lowest ranked of the five remaining candidates.

00:56The four still in the race are Cammy Badenoch with 28 votes,

01:00James Cleverley with 21 votes,

01:03Robert Jenrick scored 33 votes and Tom Tugendhat 21.

01:07Each contender, all former cabinet ministers,

01:10is now focusing on securing further support as the race tightens.

01:15The Conservative Party members, as I've indicated already,

01:18they tend to be fairly right-wing in their views.

01:22Nigel Farage is someone they would dearly love to have.

01:25That's the belief. But of course, there is an issue. He's not a member.

01:28So, Steve, who do you think is most likely to win the leadership race?

01:33Well, the name that everyone seems to be going for is James Cleverley.

01:36He was a man who, if you remember, of course, when Johnson stepped down,

01:40he actually came in and was an advisor for a couple of days.

01:45But it was seen as a safe pair of hands,

01:48somebody who, of course, you can give a brief to, understands, good media performance.

01:53But certainly give Keir Starmer a run for his money.

01:56And of course, that's what they're looking for,

01:58someone to take the Labour Party machine on.