As Conservatives elect new leader, James Cleverly is frontrunner to be UK Leader of Opposition

Former British Home Secretary James Cleverly is the frontrunner to be next Leader of the Conservative Party.

In the ongoing party leadership election, Cleverly has emerged as the frontrunner. The other candidates in the fray are Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.

The final contest is expected to be between Cleverly and whoever makes it to the final two from amongst Badenoch and Jenrick.

In the third round of voting, of the 120 MPs, Cleverly polled 39 votes against Jenrick's 30 and Badenoch's 29. Tom Tugendhat, who finished fourth with 20, was eliminated from the contest.

As the post of the Leader of the Opposition in House of Commons is held by the leader of the largest party not part of the government, Cleverly —or whoever wins the leadership contest— will become the Leader of the Opposition.

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The Guardian noted that Cleverly appears best-placed to win the leadership. As the only remaining centrist in the contest, he is expected to attract the supporters of Tugendhat, who was ousted from the race in the latest round of voting.

Cleverly's bid for party leadership got a major boost in last week's party conference in which he performed better in question-and-answer sessions and speeches than his rivals. The bid got further boost as Mel Stride, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, endorsed him after getting eliminated in the previous vote.

The final results of the Conservatives' Leadership contest will be announced on November 2.

The Conservatives were ousted earlier this year by the Labour Party in a landslide victory. The Conservatives not just faced anti-incumbency after 14 years of being in power, but also faced a large chunk of their right-wing voters captured by the Reform party of Nigel Farage. While Farage did not win many seats, he broke up the non-Labour vote and the result was that even though the Labour only polled 1.5 per cent more votes than 2019, it improved its tally by 211 seats.