Rishi Sunak is still the Conservative Party leader – but Tories fear he could step down before they find a suitable replacementRishi Sunak should stay on as the Conservative Party leader until November, a former Tory minister has said.
The beleaguered ex-PM – who led the Tories into a gaffe-prone election campaign followed by a gruelling defeat at the ballot box – quit No.10 on July 5.
He was re-elected, unlike some of his former cabinet colleagues and his predecessor Liz Truss, and is now the official leader of the Opposition.
But Sunak has confirmed that he will be stepping down as the Tory leader once his replacement has been appointed – although there are concerns that the humiliation of his election loss could push him to leave before that.
Andrew Mitchell, who served foreign minister for development and Africa in Sunak’s government and is now the shadow foreign secretary, told Times Radio today that he hoped Sunak would stay until November.
He said: “An interim leader is not, in my view, the best option. The best option is to seek to persuade Rishi to remain.
“It’s not an enormously long time in the scope of things. It’s probably till mid to end November.
“And while I completely understand his possible reticence, I hope very much the feelings of goodwill towards him, which were expressed at the meeting of the 1922 committee last week.”
He continued: “I think his instinct is almost certainly to go. I hope that he won’t.
“I hope he will stay till November for the reasons that I have described.
“And at the 1922 committee meeting last week, there was a widespread feeling of sympathy and respect for Rishi Sunak. And I’m sure that if he does stay, that will be the overwhelming feeling of the party.”
Mitchell said he hoped the current leadership contest would “mirror” that of the 2005 one, which took two months after the party had three successive electoral defeats.
David Cameron ended up taking over as Tory leader from Michael Howard.
However, Mitchell said the extent of the latest Tory losses means “we need to adopt a modest profile” with the leadership contest.
Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick are among those expected to replace Sunak.
