Shadow home secretary James Cleverly said he would not accept a frontbench role for the Conservative Party’s next leader when they are revealed on Saturday.
The winning candidates – Kemie Badenock and Robert Jenrick – are expected to immediately reshuffle the Conservative Party’s senior team.
But Cleverley told the Financial Times he would return to the backbench rather than serve in any candidate’s shadow cabinet.
Cleverley had been leading the race to succeed Rishi Sunak but was knocked out in a surprise vote by MPs in early October.
He explained that he had been “liberated” from 16 years on the political front and was now “reluctant to be confined to a narrow circle again”.
He deftly emerged as a leader candidate after delivering a well-received speech at September’s Conservative Party conference.
However, his support unexpectedly dropped in the final round as lawmakers continued to adjust their votes to try to get the final lineup they wanted.
Smart admitted the result was a “blow in the face” as he had repeatedly warned his supporters that “Kremlinology is a stupid game”, but supporters kept asking him who he would rather fight.
When Badenock and Jenrick topped the polls, both suggested they could offer him a role in the shadow cabinet if they became leader.
Badenock said Cleverley’s campaign was “full of energy, ideas and optimism” and she looked forward to “continuing to work with him.”
Her rival Jenrick told Cleverley the party “needs you on its senior team over the coming years”, adding that he would “be happy to serve in the shadow cabinet if he wanted to”.
Jenrick has made leaving the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) a key element of his leadership proposals and said all Conservative MPs would need to sign off on the policy, but Cleverley has rejected the idea.
But a tenure on the backbench seems unlikely to last forever, with Cleverly opening the door to a future bid to become Conservative leader and saying he would not “rule anything out”.
He also did not rule out the idea of running for London mayor in 2028, adding: “We do need to fight back in London. We need to fight back across large swathes of the country.”
