Tory leadership race a 'nightmare' as Brexiteers scramble to take on favorite Rishi Sunak

Party leaders want the 12-man field to be whittled down to the bottom two by the holidays next week, with run-off candidates moving on next summer to roundups across the country

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Image: Getty Images)

The Conservative leadership race descended into bitter infighting last night as the party's right wing battled to take on front-runner Rishi Sunak.

Home Secretary Priti Patel was weighing a bid after telling the Brexiteer Tories she was the only right-winger likely to win the next election.

Brexit leader Penny Mordaunt topped a poll of party members despite claims from hardliners that she was too 'woke' for the top job.

Newcomer Kemi Badenoch was hot on her heels, but conservative critics suggested she lacked the experience or seriousness for No.10.

Attorney General Suella Braverman, the current favorite of pro-Brexit radical MPs, has dispatched lieutenants to warn that the contest is too crowded.

A Tory Brexiteer told the Mirror: 'It's a nightmare.'

Priti Patel has assessed her chances of joining the Tory leadership race (

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REUTERS)

It comes as the crowded field of a dozen Tory MPs - led by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak - jostle to succeed Boris Johnson after his dramatic fall from grace following his handling of scandals last week.

Mr. Sunak will stand out from the majority of his rivals by pledging to cut taxes and reduce the tax burden only when inflation is brought under control.

"We need a return to traditional conservative economic values ​​- and that means honesty and responsibility, not fairy tales," he will say.

"I had to make some of the hardest choices of my life when I was chancellor, particularly how to manage our post-Covid debt and borrowing.

"I never hid from those, and I certainly won't claim now that the choices I made, and the things...