by Mick the Ram

After the humiliating defeat suffered by the Conservatives in the General Election, Rishi Sunak immediately announced he would be standing down as leader.

However, he has remained in place for the period in which the party choose his replacement and that process took another step towards its conclusion when Dame Priti Patel was knocked out of the six-person contest in the first round of voting.

Ms Patel, who spearheaded the previous government’s flagship scheme to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, was strongly fancied to make it through to the final two, but received only 14 votes from MP’s.

The remaining five candidates vying to become the sixth Tory leader in less than eight and a half years, will be looking to add the ex-home secretary’s votes to their own, to boost their prospects when the second round takes place next week.

Further rounds will occur in the forthcoming weeks until there are just two candidates left, before the party members pick their new leader with the result announced on 2 November.

Big decision ahead

Now that parliament has returned from their summer break, the focus for the Conservatives will be to elect the right person to take them forward to eventually be able to realistically challenge to be the elected party again.

Party conference offers opportunity

In each round of voting, the candidate who finishes last will be eliminated. Priti Patel will be joined by another of the candidates on 9 September, reducing the field to four.

That quartet will then be given a chance to speak directly to party members at the Conservative conference, between 29 September and 2 October.

Last chance

This will be their opportunity to really nail down their pitches before multiple votes will follow to leave the final two.

Then between 15-31 October MP’s will make their decision on who will be the preferred leader. Members are only eligible to vote if they have been active for 90 days prior to the ballot closing date and will do so via a secure online method, although this procedure has received criticism for its vulnerability to hacking.

The not so famous five

The remaining five candidates are: Robert Jenrick, Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Tom Tedendhat and Mel Stride.

The former immigration minister, Mr Jenrick actually topped the first round, receiving 28 votes. He famously clashed with Mr Sunak and appears to be well-liked, with his supporters confidently predicting he is “nailed on” to make the last two.

Ms Badenhock, the shadow housing secretary, was the early bookies favourite and will have been pleased to have secured 22 votes in the opening round, with every likelihood of capturing further votes as candidates drop away.

Shadow home secretary, James Cleverly will also be very happy with his 21 votes, believing momentum is on his campaign’s side after he openly stated that only he could “unite the party with Conservative values.”

Tom Tugendhat – who said in his pitch the day before that he was “ready to serve and lead Britain to a better place,” promising to deliver a “Conservative revolution” and a return to “integrity in politics” – might have been expecting a few more than his 17 votes.

Mel Stride, the ex work and pensions secretary, secured 16 votes and is widely tipped to be the next candidate to leave the contest.

All leading to 2 November

It all becomes something of a game, with many MPs choosing not to go public with their preference at this early stage, usually with one eye on ensuring they avoid upsetting whoever the eventual winner might be and in so doing, harm their own position moving forward.

November 2nd is the day it will all become clear and the point at which Rishi Sunak finally hands over the Conservative reins.