Mel Stride has declared his candidacy to replace Rishi Sunak as Conservative leader.
The shadow work and pensions secretary is “fully nominated”, having insisted on Friday morning that his candidacy “has gone forward” to the initial rounds.
Nominees must have 10 backers to submit their papers to enter the race.
Stride is the fourth Conservative MP to confirm that they are standing, following Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick. More are expected to join the race before the deadline on Monday.
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Stride, who retained his Central Devon seat by just 61 votes at the general election, said the Conservative Party had “substantially lost the trust of the British people” as well as its “reputation for competence”.
He told BBC Breakfast: “What we know from the general election is that we’re in a very, very difficult place as a party, and I worry about that because I care about my party and I care about my country.
“We’ve substantially lost the trust of the British people and we’ve lost our reputation for competence, and I believe that I’m in a very good position to address those issues going forward.”
Stride also claimed he had been prepared to “lead the charge” during the election, while others were prepared to “look the other way”.
The former work and pensions secretary, who appeared regularly on broadcast rounds during the campaign., told GB News: “I’m a team player, and when my team’s under fire, when my colleagues are on the brink of losing their seats, I go out from the front.
“I lead, and I lead the charge, and that’s what I did.”
Stride added: “Not everybody did that. Others look the other way. I stood up and did about 25 per cent of our morning rounds because I care about my party and I cared about doing the very best that we possibly could.”
Shadow housing secretary Kemi Badenoch, the bookmakers’ favourite to succeed Sunak, and former home secretaries Suella Braverman and Dame Priti Patel are expected to put themselves forward before nominations close at 2.30 pm on Monday.
With 10 nominations needed to progress, the parliamentary party will narrow the field down to four candidates and they will then need to make their case at the Conservative Party conference, which runs from 29 September to 2 October.
The final two, picked by the parliamentary party, will then go to a vote of party members in an online ballot that will close on 31 October, with the result announced on 2 November.
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