Fight on the right to be UK’s next Tory leader

LONDON: Right wing candidates Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick won through on Wednesday to the final round of the contest to become leader of Britain´s opposition Conservative Party -- seeking its sixth chief since the Brexit referendum of 2016.

The outspoken Badenoch received 42 votes from fellow Tory MPs while Jenrick picked up 41. Ex-foreign minister James Cleverly was surprisingly eliminated with 37 votes.

Conservative party members will now select the winner in a ballot that closes at the end of October, with the next leader announced on November 2.

The winner will have to reunite a fractious party, hurting from a brutal election defeat in July when it returned just 121 MPs -- the lowest number in its history. It also lost support to the hard-right Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage.

The Conservatives face a daunting rebuilding campaign to overturn Labour´s 174-seat parliamentary majority at the next election, likely in five years.

But with British elections typically won from the centre, any lurch to the right could scupper that chance.

The British-Nigerian Badenoch is a right-wing firebrand, unafraid to speak her mind and not shy of picking a battle in the culture wars.

Badenoch, 44, has been an MP since 2017, representing an area in the southeastern English county of Essex.

Born in London to Nigerian parents, Badenoch spent much of her childhood in Lagos before returning to the UK aged 16.