Rishi Sunak is being forced to remain in charge of the Tory Party for months - despite wanting to move on, it is claimed. Details of how the battle for his successor will be fought were finally announced after two weeks of wrangling. A winning candidate won't be announced until November 2, giving the party plenty of time to tear itself apart.
Senior figures had called on the Conservatives to take their time selecting a new boss and reflect on why they lost. But it means Rishi Sunak will be in charge for more than three months, despite announcing on July 5 he'd be stepping down. The leadership race has already turned ugly, with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman launching an astonishing tirade against "centrist cranks" at the weekend.
Mr Sunak will be forced to oversee a difficult party conference, and will also be in charge of the opposition when Labour sets out its first budget. Mr Sunak was keen to stand down earlier, the BBC reports , so that the party could move on. But he's said it is in "the national interest" for him to stay in post to allow "a smooth and orderly transition to a new leader of the opposition".
He said: “This will allow our party to fulfil its role as the official opposition professionally and effectively. I believe this is what is best for the Conservative Party and, most importantly, our country." Bob Blackman, who chairs the influential 1922 Committee - which will oversee the leadership contest - said he's "determined that our party will have a respectful and thorough leadership debate".
Nominations for candidates will open on Wednesday. The field will be whittled down to four, who will be able to make their pitch to Tory members at the party conference at the end of September. Be the first with news from Mirror Politics WHATSAPP GROUP: Be first to get the biggest bombshells and breaking news by joining our Politics WhatsApp group here .
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Not everyone is impressed with the timetable, with one disgruntled Tory telling The Times it's: “An act of pure self-indulgence which maximizes internal conflict to allow a few media-hungry types to blather on the broadcast media for a little longer before fading into irrelevance. Farage will be cock-a-hoop.” It comes as a massive rift emerges following the General Election defeat.
In an astonishing attack on party moderates, Ms Braverman told The Telegraph at the weekend: "If we don't recover the voters we deliberately, and arrogantly, spurned, we will turn the Conservative Party into the 21st-century version of the 20th century Liberal Party. We can do better than being a collection of fanatical, irrelevant, centrist cranks, who make it our business to insult our should-be voters for not being as smug and self-righteous as we are." Polling of 995 party members by ConservativeHome found that 26% favour Kemi Badenoch .
Moderate Tom Tugendhat and right-winger Robert Jenrick both polled at 13%. Ms Braverman was backed by 10%, with James Cleverly on 9% and Dame Priti Patel on 3%. On Sunday Shadow Chancellor Jeremy Hunt told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg: "Sadly, we're going to have the luxury of some time in opposition.
That was the message we heard loud and clear from the British people. We've got some thinking to do. We've got to reflect on the results.
I would favour taking the right amount of time to do that.".
