Nominations for the Tory leadership race have this afternoon closed – and the competition now has six official candidates. Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat all managed to secure the backing of at least 10 MPs and have made it through to the next round of the process. But while we are one step closer to knowing who the next leader of the Conservatives will be, there remains some rather pressing concerns about, er, party discipline…
The new chairman of the 1922 Committee has announced today that the party will introduce a ‘yellow card’ sanction for leadership contenders – in the hope that this will tackle ‘backbiting’ during the race. Blackman is clear that while contenders should ‘get involved in vigorous debate’, ‘attacking others’ crosses the line – and anyone acting too aggressively will receive an official warning about their behaviour in a bid to clamp down on unedifying infighting seen in previous contests.
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