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Kemi Badenoch's campaign accuses Tory leadership rivals of 'paying for polls' after independent survey puts her in front
24 August 2024, 11:40 | Updated: 24 August 2024, 11:44
Conservative leadership hopefuls are 'paying for their own polls' to improve chances of making it through the contest, a source from Kemi Badenoch's campaign has told LBC, after independent surveys tipped the former business secretary as the frontrunner.
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The now shadow housing secretary's chances of clinching the Tory leadership received a massive boost on Friday after a poll of Conservative Party members suggested she would beat all five of her rivals if she reaches the final two.
The independent YouGov survey tipped her ahead of James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat, Dame Priti Patel and Mel Stride in a hypothetical head-to-head contest.
The poll found Ms Badenoch would edge ahead of shadow Home Secretary Mr Cleverly, beating him to first place by 47 per cent to 38 per cent.
But a source from Ms Badenoch's campaign has now accused her rivals of trying to "skew the betting markets" despite arguing "polls all show that Kemi has a big lead with the Tory members".
The source told LBC: "Other campaigns are paying for their own polls or to skew the betting markets, but this independent YouGov survey and the ConservativeHome readers' polls all show that Kemi has a big lead with the Tory members.
"It confirms that she is the front runner and the person the party wants to take the fight to Labour.”
The latest YouGov poll showed Ms Badenoch was also favoured over Mr Jenrick by 48 per cent to 33 per cent; over Mr Tugendhat by 49 per cent to 31 per cent; over Dame Priti by 55 per cent to 26 per cent; and over Mr Stride by 61 per cent to 14 per cent.
Of a whole list of candidates she was also picked as the favourite, beating her colleagues with backing of 24 per cent of the party members.
Mr Tugendhat came in second place at 16 per cent, Mr Cleverly in third on 14 per cent, Mr Jenrick in fourth on 12 per cent, Dame Priti in fifth on 11 per cent and Mr Stride last on two per cent.
A further 19 per cent said they were still undecided ahead of the winner being announced in November 2. Rishi Sunak is still in place as leader of the party until then.
Ex-Tory MP Bob Seely on the leadership race
Addressing the comments from the source in Ms Badenoch's campaign, Mr Stride told LBC's Matt Frei on Saturday morning: "This is a long contest. David Cameron was 25/1 at the bookies about a week before that extraordinary conference speech. He went on to win the contest and become prime minister.
"Nobody should be taking anything for granted."
He continued: "I would say, particularly to my colleagues in parliament, what matters now is actually where we're going to be in five years time when we fight that election.
"The decision we've got to take, and members of our party have got to take, is who is the person that can do the hard yards, lead our party, and bring us into contention - not what the public thinks of the candidates at this precise moment."
"One of those polls with the electorate had me right at the top," he claimed.
Mr Stride, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said his party's political prospects at the next election were still "all to play for" despite enormous defeat last month.
"Labour's position is built on stand in many ways. They came in with the lowest proportion of the vote of any government in our history and that can be overturned through time."
Mr Stride said he wanted to lead the Tories to "do the hard yards" in "effective opposition" to the government and build a "policy platform".
"We are going to have to bring back that sense of optimism and hope and aspiration and opportunity and all those things across all age cohorts," he said, noting that the Tories had lost the youth vote and needed "to get it back".
The average Conservative voter at the last election was aged 63.
If he were to lead the Tories and become prime minister, Mr Stride said he wanted to offer a tax incentive to younger people by putting their first £5,000 of National Insurance into a tax-free ISA, which could then go towards buying a house.
He said the government needed to "turbocharge growth" and deal with low productivity to improve the economic outlook.
"But I can't stress enough that this contest amongst myself and the other five candidates," he continued, "should be about leadership. It's about who's going to do the hard yards in the months and years ahead that will lead us to the point where we're back in political contention.
"It's not about setting out an immediate policy stall."
