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PROSPECTIVE Tory leaders are set to battle for control of the gutted party after its monumental defeat in the general election last week.

The Conservatives ended up with just 121 seats on Friday — the worst result in the party’s history.

In his final speech outside Downing Street on Friday, former prime minister Rishi Sunak announced that he will stand down as soon as the arrangements to choose his successor have been put in place.

Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who narrowly retained his seat in Parliament by 900 votes, has ruled himself out of the contest, telling GB News “that time has passed.”

Former business secretary Kemi Badenoch, who continued to allow arms exports to Israel under her tenure, enabling its genocidal attacks on Gaza, is thought to be among those gearing up for a bid. 

Four former Tory Home Office ministers are said to be in the running, including Robert Jenrick, who made a pitch for leadership on migration, writing in the Times that failing to reduce it was the party’s “biggest and most damaging failure.”

The former immigration minister has not ruled out his bid, but said the first step was getting “the right diagnosis of what’s gone wrong.”

Priti Patel, architect of the inhumane Rwanda deportation plans, is also thought to be throwing her hat in the ring, along with gaffe-prone James Cleverly.

When asked about a leadership bid, he cryptically told Sky News: “What might happen in the future I’ll leave for the near future.”

Twice-sacked home secretary Suella Braverman, who is likely to seek support from the right on a platform of scrapping human rights legislation and rewriting the Equality Act, blasted the party for failing to tackle “woke policies,” advocating an even more brutal stance on immigration in the Telegraph. 

Former army officer and ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat, who wrote to the police urging them to make “robust use” of their powers in the wake of pro-Palestine protests, has also not ruled out running.

Ex-health secretary Victoria Atkins, who had blamed underpaid and overworked striking nurses for record NHS waiting lists, is also being discussed as a potential contender. 

A new committee and chair to oversee the contest is expected to be selected in the next fortnight.