Who are the candidates and what are the rules?

Four candidates are still vying for Rishi Sunak to become leader of the Conservative Party.

Priti Patel and Mel Stride were eliminated after two votes from Conservative MPs. The remaining four will now make their pitch to party members at a party conference in Birmingham.

MPs will select the final two candidates in a series of further votes, with party members choosing the winner in early November.

Born in London and raised in Nigeria, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke became the Conservative MP for Saffron Walden in 2017 under his married name of Badenoch.

According to Blue Ambition, a biography by Conservative aristocrat Lord Ashcroft, her political heroine growing up in Nigeria was Margaret Thatcher, known for her steadfast views and no-nonsense style.

At the age of 16, she returned to the UK to study for her A-levels, and later earned a master’s degree in computer systems engineering from the University of Sussex.

She told The Spectator podcast that she became more conservative in part as a “reaction to the spoiled, entitled, privileged metropolitan elite in college.”

The 44-year-old mother of three worked in banking and IT before entering politics.

She held a series of ministerial roles under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who promoted her to business secretary.

But it was arguably through her other previous role – as minister for women and equalities – that she became a darling of the modern Tory right for her stance on trans rights.

She regularly tops polls of Conservative Party members conducted by the Conservative Home website.

In 2022, she ran for the Conservative leadership for the first time after Boris Johnson resigned, and despite starting the campaign in a relatively low-key manner, she ended up finishing fourth.

launch her latest bidShe said the Conservatives needed to “stop acting like Labour” to regain power.

James Cleverly is seen as a “moderate” member of the Conservative Party and has been an MP since 2015, serving successively as Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary.

He was born and raised in south London, the son of a British father and a Sierra Leonean mother who worked as an NHS midwife.

His full-time military career was cut short by a leg injury, but he remained an Army Reserve officer.

Like his leadership rival Ms Badenock, the 55-year-old father-of-two began his political career as a member of the London Assembly.

Before entering politics, he worked in magazine and digital publishing and then founded his own company.

A sociable person who likes to joke, He got into trouble last year for allegedly making derogatory remarks Regarding Stockton-on-Tees in the House of Commons (which he denied).

he He also had to apologize for jokingly spiking his wife’s drink. At a reception in Downing Street.

He once told The Huffington Post that his biggest flaw is: “I talk too much, and sometimes I talk a little too frankly, and I think people like that until they don’t.”

He said he wanted to “unite” the Conservative Party and urged the party to “think and act like a Conservative again”.

He was also a staunch defender of the previous government’s policy of sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda, saying If he becomes prime minister, he will bring it back.

Robert Jenrick began his political journey by reinventing himself as a right-winger, becoming a more centrist figure and a close ally of former chancellor Rishi Sunak.

He resigned as immigration minister last year, saying Mr Sunak’s emergency legislation for Rwanda did not go far enough.

He has since been outspoken about his party’s failure to deliver on its promises to cut immigration when in power.

In particular, he led calls for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

That has helped him attract the support of MPs previously loyal to his former Home Office boss Suella Braverman, who ruled himself out as a leader before the leadership race even began.

The 42-year-old father of three was a corporate lawyer and director of Christie’s auction house before entering politics in 2014 as a Newark congressman.

his Conservative leadership advocacy The party needs to face the hard truth – only he can make the changes needed to win the next election.

In 2020, he was embroiled in controversy over his decision to become housing secretary East London housing development plan consent Ties to Conservative Party donors.

In 2023, he made headlines again when he ordered a mural of cartoon characters to be repainted at a reception center for child asylum seekers in Dover.

Recently, he admitted to using the weight loss drug Ozempic but said he “didn’t particularly like it” and continued to lose weight in more traditional ways.

Tom Tugendhat, a former Army officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is generally viewed as a centrist.

But the shadow security minister has sought to boost his credibility with right-wing MPs by taking a tough stance on immigration.

exist His leadership campaign launchesAfter taking office, he promised to limit net immigration to the UK to 100,000 people a year and did not rule out withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights if he came to power.

The 51-year-old leader previously lost a leadership contest against Liz Truss, during which he pitched himself as offering a “new start” and “bridging the Brexit divide”.

This time, he promised to “make the Conservative Party a serious force again” and went out of his way to apologize for the Conservative Party’s behavior in power.

The son of a High Court judge and educated at top private school St Paul’s College before studying theology at Bristol University, he became Tonbridge MP at the 2015 general election.

The father-of-two voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum. He harshly criticized NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.

Party members can vote between October 15 and 31.

They will make their choice through a secure online voting system, although this method has been used before Criticized for its vulnerability to hackers and rogue state intervention.

To be eligible to vote, party members must be active for 90 days before voting closes and must be a party member when nominations open.

The new leader of the Conservative Party will be announced on November 2, when Mr Sunak will officially step down.