Mel Stride Says He Will "Completely Overhaul" Tory Campaign Machine If Elected Leader

Conservative leadership contender Mel Stride wants to “radically drive change” in the Tory party in the wake of its shattering election defeat, including a “complete overhaul” of the campaign structure.

In a sit-down interview with PoliticsHome, Stride said Conservative Campaign Headquarters was "outdated, over-centralised" and "not fit for purpose".

Stride and five other Tory MPs have thrown their hats into the ring to take over from Rishi Sunak as leader, following the Conservatives’ worst electoral defeat in history. Joining the former work and pensions secretary on the ballot are former home secretaries Priti Patel and James Cleverly, ex-security minister Tom Tugendhat, former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, and former business secretary Kemi Badenoch.

While some contenders had reportedly been planning their leadership campaigns for months, Stride, the Conservative MP for Central Devon, was still in the process of putting his campaign team together at the time of this interview. As a member of former prime minister Sunak's Cabinet, he had a particularly busy General Election campaign, often the appointed spokesperson for the party in the broadcast media — so much so that the regularity of his appearances became a running joke in Westminster.

Now the election is over, he intends to throw everything into the leadership campaign: “I want to win this contest because I care about my party."

All six candidates claim they are best placed to unite the Tory party after years of infighting and return it to a strong electoral position ahead of the next General Election in five years' time.

Stride stresses, however, that recovery will not be possible without first bringing about a complete overhaul of the party machine.

“What