“Whoever wins this contest, give them your backing. We must end the division, the backbiting, the squabbling. We mustn’t nurse old grudges but build new friendships.
“We must always remember what unites us, rather than obsessing about where we might differ, because when we turn in on ourselves, we lose and the country ends up with a Labour government,” said Rishi Sunak as he bowed out as Leader of the Conservatives at the party conference in Birmingham.
“I'm optimistic about our country's long-term future, I'm optimistic about our party's future too,” declared Sunak – who is serving as interim Leader of the Opposition until the Tories choose his successor.
Former Tory ministers James Cleverly, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat are laying out their stalls at the conference this week to convince party colleagues and its membership base that they are best placed to take Sunak’s place following a drubbing at the ballot box in July’s general election.
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“In James, Kemi, Robert and Tom, we have a slate of strong leadership candidates. Now, I sat around the Cabinet tables with all of them, and I can tell you, they are all good Conservatives who would lead this country well and be better Prime Ministers than Keir Starmer,” said Sunak, who was joined by wife Akshata Murty and cheered on by party colleagues.
“If we Conservatives are going to get back into office so that we can once more deliver for the British people, then our new leader is going to need your support. So, let's use this conference to look to the future and ensure that one of our four candidates is not just the next leader of our party, but our next prime minister too,” he said.
Touching upon some of his own achievements as the country’s first-ever British Indian chancellor and prime minister, the member of Parliament for Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire added: “When Covid hit, we could support people and businesses with furlough, provide record funding to the NHS and deliver the fastest vaccine rollout in the world anywhere.
“We have given a whole generation opportunities that they would not have otherwise had, and our country will reap the benefit of those reforms for generations to come, and that is a legacy we Conservatives should be proud of.”
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After a further narrowing down of the shortlist to the final two candidates in the race, the new Tory leader will be declared on November 2 after the close of online voting.
