Tory leadership candidates already working to garner support – Lord Ben Houchen

Conservative leadership candidates are privately contacting prominent Tories to garner support, Lord Ben Houchen has suggested.

Lord Houchen, the sole remaining Conservative regional mayor following May’s local elections, also warned against an overly long Tory leadership contest, and suggested it could take the party years to rebuild from its election defeat.

No candidate is yet to official declare they will run for the Conservative leadership.

I think it would be remiss of me to try and pretend otherwise, but absolutely a number of the contenders have already been contacting me

Those expected to run include shadow communities secretary Kemi Badenoch , shadow home secretary James Cleverly , former ministers Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick , and Tom Tugendhat, the shadow security minister.

Asked by the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg who he would be backing in the coming leadership race, the Tory mayor of Tees Valley said he did not know yet.

Lord Houchen added: “I think it would be remiss of me to try and pretend otherwise, but absolutely a number of the contenders have already been contacting me.

“Over the coming weeks I will be meeting with them because they have asked to meet with me to discuss their intentions.”

Lord Houchen said the Conservative Party was operating in a “new world” following its election drubbing, telling the BBC: “While lots of the contenders are, I think, pretty well known to most people, it will depend on what their offering for this Conservative Party is going to be.”

He added: “So while those people are familiar to us, we also need to understand what their positions are on rebuilding the Conservative Party, what the hard yards are going to be that they are going to put in over the next 12, 18 months, 24 months to be able to rebuild the Conservative Party from within.

“But also start to reach out to the public, to be able to rebuild that trust and confidence which let’s be honest is going to take a significant period of time.”

Lord Houchen, now one of the most prominent Conservative politicians in the UK, suggested he held no truck with calls for the party to move to the left or right to win over voters.

I can understand from some people that they think there should be some sort of additional process that can take place at conference, whether that can be a hustings or something. But I think certainly in the first half of October, we need to be getting to a place where we do have a leader in place

Instead, he suggested people needed to see the party could “actually be able to deliver on those promises” it made.

The Tory mayor said the Conservative Party conference at the start of October “or thereabouts” should be the deadline for a new leader to be selected.

He added: “I can understand from some people that they think there should be some sort of additional process that can take place at conference, whether that can be a hustings or something.

“But I think certainly in the first half of October, we need to be getting to a place where we do have a leader in place.”

He warned against delaying to “navel gaze for too long”, suggesting it would “turn off the public even more”.

Lord Houchen’s intervention comes as polling by independent Tory news organisation Conservative Home found Ms Badenoch was leadership favourite.

Conservative Home’s poll showed the former minister for women and equalities had the support of 25.83% of grassroots Tories.

Among the 995 members surveyed on July 8, 9 and 10 about who should replace former prime minister Rishi Sunak, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick was second favourite, with 13.47% support.