Conservative Party will shift further to the right in bid to win back Reform voters

It has been decided - the Conservative Party is shifting to the right after a huge shock in the leadership election saw centrist James Cleverly booted out of the race.

Tory members must now decide whether they want Kemi Badenoch as their leader or Robert Jenrick.

One is a right-wing, black woman known for being straight talking but gaffe-prone.

The other is a white man viewed as a safer pair of hands but accused by many of disingenuously shifting to the right to win votes.

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They would both have fancied their chances against Cleverly, given that party members are currently considered more right wing than most Tory MPs.

Which is why Cleverly being eliminated was such a shock.

He was the favourite in the previous round, with several more votes from fellow MPs than any of his opponents - but somehow he ended up being eliminated.

Some have suggested a number of his backers lent votes to Jenrick in order to eliminate Badenoch but inadvertently left Cleverly without enough votes to get through.

It is not yet clear - but what is clear now is that the Conservative Party will abandon the centre ground.

An internal battle engulfed the party following its catastrophic election result in July, with some saying it could only win again by remaining a centre-right party.

But others said a shift to the right was needed to win back voters who abandoned the party for Nigel Farage's Reform UK.

Advocates for the centre ground believe it is more important to win back seats from the Liberal Democrats, who have 72 MPs, compared to Reform, who have just five.

But Reform did receive almost 600,000 more votes than the Lib Dems, gaining 14.3% of the vote compared to just 12.2%.

The remaining three weeks of the Conservative leadership election are now likely to be much more interesting with Cleverly out the race.

Jenrick, who was previously also considered a moderate Tory, has gone on a political journey since getting elected in 2014. He's been nicknamed "Robert Generic".

But he has gradually moved to the right, a position he cemented as immigration minister.

The MP for Newark resigned as a minister last December, claiming the then-draft legislation designed to revive the Rwanda deportation policy did "not go far enough".

He's campaigning on a tough stance of cutting immigration and controversially pulling out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Badenoch is also no stranger to controversy.

Her positions have raised eyebrows many times over the past four-ish years since she became equalities minister in 2020 - and while they are popular with the right wing, party members must also consider she is too divisive for the public.

She's been outspoken on gender issues, opposing gender neutral toilets and calling for a change to the Equality Act so that sex is defined only as someone's biological sex.

More recently she was widely mocked for suggesting on a podcast that she became working class when working at McDonalds.

And at the party conference this autumn she was criticised for appearing to suggest that maternity pay is excessive in the UK. She later insisted her words were taken out of context.

The winner of the leadership election is set to be announced on November 2.

Should the contentious Conservative leadership election process change?

A leadership election to replace Rishi Sunak has been rumbling on since he announced he would quit after the Tories' worst election defeat ever.

While it may have gone under the radar that a party with just 121 MPs was deciding who should lead it into an election at least four years away, the leader of His Majesty's Official Opposition does matter.

Which is why some have suggested the Conservative Party should rethink the way it elects its leaders.

Under the current system, MPs nominate a number of candidates, whittle them down to two in a series of votes and then give members the final decision.

There are a number of criticisms; principally the question on whether such a small number of party members should be allowed to make a decision that has such an impact on the rest of the country.

The implications are lessened now they aren't in power - but a strong opposition is essential for a functioning democracy. Without one, legislation may not be properly scrutinised. Governments could force through laws without proper checks and balances.

Some Tories want the system reversing, so MPs get the final decision rather than members.

Last time, the current system allowed members to decide whether the prime minister should be Sunak or Liz Truss - and it is widely believed they made the wrong choice.

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