Former Conservative minister Michelle Donelan has said she believes Kemi Badenoch can make it through to the final round of the leadership election.
Speaking to GB News Michelle Donelan said:
“I think we shouldn’t get too carried away. It’s one poll. So let’s not count our chickens yet, and there’s a long way to the next general election.
“So now is not the time to get complacent and think that the next election is in any way in the bag. Now is the time to knuckle down as a party and to win back those votes and to deserve to be in power again.
“To earn back the trust of the electorate, we’re only going to do that if we’re united, if we’re not navel gazing, if we’re focused on core conservative principles, things like freedom of the individual, the family, defending the nation.
“These are the things that people want us to actually believe in again and show and demonstrate that we’re believing in.
“I think [Kemi Badenoch going through to the final two] is going to be tight, but this was always going to be tight. All of those candidates, I think, are of a very high calibre.
“I’ve worked with each and every one of them, and I would be delighted for any of them to win, and I would follow them as the leader of the party.
“But I think that Kemi has the edge in the sense that she can really cut through the noise. She’s different, and we need that now in opposition.
“I don’t think he is continuity at all, to be fair to James. And he is actually on the right of the party, naturally. And he’s somebody that as a brexiteer throughout, has been loyal to other prime ministers, which I think is an excellent quality as well, and we shouldn’t dismiss that.
“And I think what he is saying he stands for are the core Conservative principles.
“But I think one of the things that Kemi has done very well is say now is not the time to flood everybody with policies. We’re five years off a general election, probably.
“What we need to be doing is getting back to our core Conservative principles. And on the doorstep, I heard time and time again, people had got confused about, what did the Conservative Party actually stand for? What were they buying into? What are they voting for?
“And it wasn’t helped by the fact that we had a number of prime ministers, so a number of faces representing our party. So I think realignment with our core principles is essential.
“I think that we really do need to recognize how people voted in their droves for Reform. In my seat, if Reform hadn’t stood, I would have won the seat And so it did change our political landscape dramatically, because people were downright fed up.
“They were particularly fed up with illegal immigration and the fact that there’d been a lot of talking and not a lot of action.
“And therefore on the policies that reform voters voted on, we really need to be very forthright on and regain the trust.
“Now what I think we need to get to a position of is a position where we saw in 2019 where UKIP weren’t standing in certain seats, because they recognized that actually the Conservatives were the ones that could win. They were the ones that could deliver on the agenda that they agreed with, and they too trusted the party to go forward and do that. So we need to bring back some more credibility.”