Kemi Badenoch has entered the Conservative leadership race to replace Rishi Sunak with a pledge to tell voters the truth.
The shadow housing secretary – who served as business and trade secretary in the last government – becomes the sixth person to put themselves forward.
She joins James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Robert Jenrick and Mel Stride, who declared last week, and Priti Patel, who launched her bid at the weekend, in the race.
Suella Braverman had also been expected to run, but said she has chosen not to despite having the backing of the 10 MPs she needed before the 2.30pm deadline on Monday.
The former home secretary wrote in an article for The Telegraph her party’s disastrous election result was down to failures on migration, taxes and “transgender ideology” and said there was “no point” running to lead the Tories “when most of the MPs disagree with my diagnosis and prescription”.
“I’ve been branded mad, bad and dangerous enough to see that the Tory Party does not want to hear this. And so I will bow out here.”
Analysis: If Badenoch becomes Tory leader don’t expect pleasantries or politeness – it’ll be a bumpy ride
Announcing her candidacy and her honesty vow, Ms Badenoch wrote in The Times: “If I have the privilege to serve, we will speak the truth again.
“That is why today my campaign is launching with an explicit focus on renewing our party for 2030 – the first full year we can be back in government and the first year of a new decade.
“We will renew by starting from first principles: we can’t control immigration until we reconfirm our belief in the nation state and the sovereign duty it has, above all else, to serve its own citizens.
“Our public services will never fully recover from the pandemic until we remember that government should do some things well, not everything badly.
“At the foundation of our…
