Immigration, the economy and how the Conservatives can rebuild voters’ trust were discussed at length throughout the campaign.

The party suffered its worst overall defeat in its history in July, falling to a record 121 seats in the House of Commons with less than 24% of the vote.

Priti Patel, Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly spent the summer campaigning with the latter two after putting their names forward as leaders.

Patel and Stride were eliminated in September, followed by Tugendhat and Cleverly after the party conference in Birmingham.

He was wisely seen as the best performer at the conference and came first in the third MPs’ vote.

But he was surprisingly eliminated when Conservative Party MPs voted for the final time 24 hours later. Badenoch received 42 votes, Jenrick 41 and Cleverly 37.

A survey of Tory members last week by the website ConservativeHome suggested, external Badenoch led Jenrick from 55% to 31%, with another 14% undecided.

Jenrick, who resigned from the Sunak government in protest over its approach to tackling immigration, put the issue at the center of his leadership ambition.

He called for a legally binding cap on net migration and for the UK to leave the European Convention on Human Rights, which he claimed made it “impossible to protect our borders”.

He also repeatedly criticized Badenoch for refusing to set detailed policies during the campaign.