Witham's MP, Former Home Secretary Dame Priti Patel, launched her campaign for Conservative Leadership on Friday (August 30).

Dame Priti, the Member of Parliament for Witham since 2010, announced that she will be joining the race to replace Rishi Sunak last week.

Other candidates include Mel Stride, the former work and pensions secretary, Tom Tugendhat, the former security minister, James Cleverly, the former foreign and home secretary, Kemi Badenoch, the former business secretary, and Robert Jenrick, the former immigration minister.

Under campaign slogan "Unite to Win", Priti argues that she can get the Conservative Party "match fit" for the next election.

Dame Priti Patel's X post linking to a recent article by The Telegraph. (Photo: @pritipatel on X)

In her campaign speech on Friday, she covered a range of topics including immigration, local government, British values, crime and parliamentary candidate selection process reform.

She heavily criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer, criticising his speech to the nation last week as "feeble, pitiful, and dishonest.", and condemning Labour Party changes to the winter fuel allowance as a "nasty financial assault" on pensioners.

Voting begins next week in the race to replace Rishi Sunak, with Conservative MPs to reduce the six-person field down to five on Wednesday, and four the following week.

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Those four politicians will then deliver addresses at a party conference in late September before MPs vote for their two final candidates, with members to pick a winner in November.