SUELLA Braverman’s hopes of becoming Tory leader were dealt a hammer blow this evening as her closest ally abandoned her to back Robert Jenrick.
Veteran Tory Sir John Hayes has offered up his services to the former Cabinet Minister despite being a long-term mentor to Ms Braverman and running her last leadership campaign.
Mr Jenrick is emerging as a front runner for the right of the party, with a hard-line stance on migration, despite being a one time backer of Rishi Sunak.
Ex-Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel is also seeking the leadership from the right, pitted against Tory wets Tom Tugendhat and Victoria Atkins.
Yesterday Ms Braverman launched a stinging broadside against Mr Jenrick, branding him “from the Left of the party”.
Taking the gloves off, she added: “He voted for Remain. He was a big, kind of centrist, Rishi supporter.”
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“I remember talking to him about leaving the ECHR a year ago, and him looking horrified by the prospect.”
The former home secretary also blamed failure to tackle the “wave of illegal immigrants” or tackling the “lunatic woke virus” for the Conservatives election loss.
Appearing at a Popular Conservative group event Braverman warned: “We were going to stop the wave of illegal migrants landing on our shores. We were going to cut taxes. We were going to lower overall illegal migration.
“We were going to stop the lunatic woke virus working its way through the British state.
“The harsh reality – this is a lesson we all need to learn and face up to – is that we did none of that.”
On Monday, she spoke to the National Conservatism conference in Washington where she said “our problem is that the liberal Conservatives who trashed the Tory party think it was everyone’s fault but their own” and criticised Government departments flying the trans rights flag calling it a “monstrous thing”.
She added: “I was a member of a government that presided over the mutilation of children in our hospitals and from our schools.”
Tory backbenchers met today to appoint a new shop steward to run the 1922 Committee, before a timetable for the election of a new leader can begin.
The results will be published this evening.
