Ex-minister Priti Patel likely to contest to replace Rishi Sunak as UK Opposition

LONDON July 17: Britain’s former home secretary, Priti Patel, is expected to contest the Conservative Party leadership race to replace Rishi Sunak as Opposition Leader in the House of Commons.

According to UK media reports, the 52-year-old British Indian member of Parliament is considering throwing her hat in the ring after she won her Witham, Essex, seat with a comfortable margin even as her party suffered its worst defeat in the general election earlier this month.

Sunak, 44, had announced his resignation on July 5 as the Labour Party landslide win unfolded and will attend the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday as interim Opposition Leader until the election process for his successor has been finalised by the powerful 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs.

“Priti has kept a low profile and done her best to support others, she feels colleagues also need time to digest the general election result and don’t want posturing in the media from prospective candidates,” ‘The Daily Telegraph’ quoted a source close to the senior Tory MP as saying.

“She has quietly put a team together, as many colleagues from different sides of the party have over the past week urged her to run and she now has key MP supporters and campaign staff in place including some high profile Conservative donors,” the source added.

Patel, who also served as Indian Diaspora Champion in former prime minister David Cameron’s government, swore her oath as a re-elected MP in the House of Commons on the ‘Bible’ last week.

“It is an honour to once again be elected to Parliament by the great people of the Witham constituency, and it was a privilege to swear the Oath of Allegiance to His Majesty the King,” Patel said in a statement on social media.

“I will continue to be a strong and vocal advocate for our beautiful part of Essex and stand up for our values,” she said.

Patel, whose parents are of Gujarati-Ugandan descent, has served as international development secretary and home secretary in former Tory Cabinets under Theresa May and Boris Johnson. She was conferred a Damehood in the latter’s resignation honours list, moving to the backbenches under Rishi Sunak’s premiership and often voicing criticism of his government’s high taxation policies.

As part of her leadership plans, Patel is believed to have appointed a treasurer for her campaign and former Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) staff with experience of past leadership elections. She is also expected to have lined up several high-profile donors who have given money to the party in the past during the leaderships of Johnson and Cameron.

If she joins the fray to take over from Sunak, she is likely to face competition from other former Cabinet ministers including fellow Indian-origin colleague Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick. The frontrunner in the race until now has been seen as shadow minister Kemi Badenoch, with Tom Tugendhat among the other shadow ministers expected to contest.

The 1922 Committee, meanwhile, has elected Bob Blackman as its new chair who has said that the group would be finalising the guidelines for the leadership contest in the coming weeks.