Is Kemi Badenoch About to Lose the Conservative Party Leadership Contest?

The results from the first round of the leadership contest contain some very bad news for the current favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak

The results of the first round of the new Conservative party leadership contest Rishi Sunak are now in.

The headline news is that Priti Patel is out, having secured the votes of just 14 Conservative MPs.

This is a dreadful result for the candidate who had been widely talked up as a potential winner of this contest earlier this year.

However, what is more interesting is the somewhat surprising underperformance of the current favourite Kemi Badenoch, who received just 22 votes.

This puts her in second place behind Robert Jenrick on 28 points and only one vote ahead of James Cleverly on 21.

Here are the full results:

• Robert Jenrick: 28

• Kemi Badenoch: 22

• James Cleverly: 21

• Tom Tugendhat: 17

• Mel Stride: 16

• Priti Patel: 14 (Eliminated)

On the face of it this looks to be bad news for Badenoch. Here’s why.