Penny Mordaunt and Kemi Badenoch may be the clear favourites to succeed a beleaguered Rishi Sunak as leader of the Tory party, but i understands that Defence Secretary Grant Shapps may also fancy his chances. While much of the leadership speculation in recent months has focused on Mordaunt and Badenoch , the Defence Secretary has been working on wooing MPs and boosting his personal profile in anticipation of a future contest, i has been told. “The one who’s making the most manoeuvres is Grant Shapps,” one backbench MP said. “Everyone else is at least doing it relatively subtly. Grant isn’t being subtle at all. He’s constantly inviting people for cups of tea and drinks and constantly ringing colleagues.” Another said it was an “open secret” that Shapps still harboured ambitions to become party leader, and perhaps prime minister, having already made an unsuccessful bid in the 2022 leadership race. Following the resignation of
Boris Johnson, Shapps launched his campaign to succeed him complete with flashy graphics, slick video messages and a pledge that he could “win an
election for our party in tough times” . He dropped out just three days later to endorse Sunak. During his short-lived campaign , Shapps pitched himself as “a problem solver with a proven record of delivery” and a “details man”, which echoes how some Tory MPs describe him. One senior Tory MP said he was “seen as a safe pair of hands to some” and was “known for being meticulous” as a minister, but added: “I doubt he has it in him to win the [leadership] contest. Kemi and Penny have the numbers.” Read Next Penny Mordaunt leadership rumours fuelled by No 10, Tory insiders believe They pointed to the fact that Shapps is renowned for being one of the best performers on the morning media round and has previously been deployed on particularly tough days for the government, such as the day after Dominic Cummings’s infamous drive to Barnard Castle and during the height of the “Partygate” scandal . Shapps is also a seasoned Cabinet member, having served as
Secretary of State for defence, business and transport, as well as a six-day stint as home secretary in the final days of Liz Truss’s government. As part of Shapps’s efforts to woo MPs,
WhatsApp groups used for the Defence Secretary’s short-lived 2022 leadership have reportedly been revived for Shapps to hold discussions with some of his supporters. One key aim of the group chat – supposedly titled SLAP (Shapps Leadership Action Plan) – is to gauge the level of support that Shapps has amongst his colleagues in the Commons. Shapps has been previously dubbed a “spreadsheet schemer” for his detailed tracking of opposition to Truss’s turbulent leadership, which one party source claimed played a key role in efforts to remove her. They said that he is now using his knack for spreadsheets to track various colleague’s opinions of him, as well as their individual areas of interest and prospects at the next election . There have also been claims that Shapps has been frequently inviting other MPs for drinks, which some have dubbed “Schnapps with Shapps” in a throwback to Truss’s infamous “Fizz with Liz” drinks held for her supporters . But, despite these accolades, other MPs are less complimentary about Shapps’ prospects as a future party leader, with one backbencher saying it would be “crazy” for him to attempt it. “It’s nuts, the idea that he could be the solution,” they said. A source close to Shapps said that the Defence Secretary remains “fully supportive of the Prime Minister and is concentrating on helping the Conservatives win the next election”. “He is solely focused on his
Job as Defence Secretary at a time where we face a more contested and aggressive world than we have done in decades,” they added. However, many in the party expect that he will seek to become a candidate if Sunak leaves No 10 after the next general election, a fact not denied by Shapps’ allies. One former minister told i : “The battle [after the election] will be between Kemi, [Home Secretary James Cleverly] and Shapps. And if Kemi gets the membership, she’ll win.” The more immediate challenge facing Shapps, as well as his potential leadership rivals Mordaunt and Cleverly, is that polling shows that all three could lose their seats at the next election. According to a recent Survation poll for Best for
Britain , the trio are at risk of losing their seats to
Labour, with senior figures such as Badenoch, former home secretary Suella Braverman and ex-immigration minister Robert Jenrick set to be safe.