Who are the candidates and what are the rules?

Three candidates are battling to take over from Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative party.

Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, and Robert Jenrick remain in the contest, after Tom Tugehdhat was knocked out after the latest vote among Tory MPs.

MPs will vote again on Wednesday to decide the final two contenders, with party members then choosing the ultimate winner in early November.

Born in London and raised in Nigeria, Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke became the Tory MP for Saffron Walden in 2017 under her married name Badenoch.

Known for her robust views and no-nonsense style, her political heroine growing up in Nigeria was Margaret Thatcher, according to Blue Ambition, a biography by Tory peer Lord Ashcroft.

She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to study for her A-levels before gaining a masters degree in computer systems engineering from Sussex University.

She became more Conservative partly as “a reaction to the very spoiled, entitled, privileged, metropolitan elite-in-training at university,” she told a Spectator podcast.

Before entering politics, the 44-year-old mother of three worked in banking and IT.

She held a series of ministerial jobs under Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, who promoted her to business secretary.

But it is arguably through her other former role – as minister for women and equalities – that she has emerged as a darling of the modern Conservative right for her stance on trans rights.

She first ran for Conservative leader in 2022 following the resignation of Boris Johnson, and came fourth despite starting the race with a relatively low-profile.

Launching her latest bid, she said the Conservative Party needed to “stop acting like Labour” to win back power.

Seen as being on the “moderate” wing of the Conservative Party, James Cleverly has been an MP since 2015, rising to become foreign secretary and then home secretary.

Born and raised in south London, to an English father and Sierra Leonean mother, who worked as an NHS midwife, he was privately educated, despite the family’s modest means, and joined the Army straight after school.

His full time soldiering career was cut short by a leg injury but he remains an officer in the Army reserves.

Like his leadership rival, Badenoch, the 55-year-old father-of-two cut his political teeth as a member of the London Assembly.

Before entering politics, he had a career in magazine and digital publishing, before setting up his own company.

A self-confessed fan of the tabletop wargame Warhammer, Cleverly is known to enjoy a joke.

He got into hot water in November 2023 for allegedly making a derogatory remark about Stockton-on-Tees in the Commons (something he denied).

He also had to apologise for joking about spiking his wife’s drink at a Downing Street reception.

He once told the Huffington Post his biggest fault was that: “I talk too much and sometimes I speak a bit too frankly, which I think people like until they don’t like it.”

He has spoken of his desire to “unite” the Conservatives and has urged the party to “think and act like Conservatives again”.

He is also a robust defender of the previous government’s policy of sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda, and has said he would bring it back if he becomes prime minister.

Robert Jenrick has reinvented himself as a right-winger after starting his political journey as a more centrist figure and a close ally of former PM Rishi Sunak.

In 2023, he resigned his role as immigration minister, saying Sunak’s emergency Rwanda legislation did not go far enough.

And he has since been outspoken about what he sees as his party’s failure to deliver on its promises to cut immigration when it was in power.

In particular, he has led calls for the UK to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.

This helped to him to attract support from MPs previously loyal to his former boss at the Home Office, Suella Braverman, who ruled herself out of the leadership contest before it began.

The 42-year-old father of three was a corporate lawyer – and a director of auction house Christie’s – before entering politics as the MP for Newark in 2014.

His Tory leadership pitch is that the party needs to confront hard truths – and only he can make the changes needed to win the next election.

In 2020, he was embroiled in controversy over his decision as housing secretary to grant planning permission for a housing development in east London linked to a Tory donor.

In 2023, he made headlines again for ordering that murals of cartoon characters at a reception centre for child asylum seekers in Dover be painted over.

More recently, he admitted using the weight loss drug Ozempic but said he “didn’t particularly enjoy it” and went on to lose weight by more traditional means.

Party members will be able to cast their vote between 15 October and 31 October.

They will make their choice via a secure online voting system, though this approach has previously been criticised for its susceptibility to hackers and rogue state interference.

To be eligible to vote, party members must have been active for 90 days before the ballot closed, and to have been party members when nominations opened.

The new leader of the Conservative Party will be announced on 2 November – at which point Mr Sunak will formally stand down.