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Robert Jenrick has promised to make Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg chairman of the Conservative Party if he beats Kemi Badenoch in the Tory leadership contest.
The former immigration minister has said he would hand the crucial role to former business secretary Sir Jacob, who lost his seat in the July election.
“Jacob has been a tireless campaigner for the grassroots. He understands better than anyone the need for party reform,” Mr Jenrick said.
“One of my first acts as leader would be to appoint him as chairman of the party so we can truly reform and democratise our party. Together we will empower members and restore the respect that has been so sorely lacking in recent years,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
The party chairman is a crucial role overseeing the Tories’ election campaigns. Former party chairman Oliver Dowden quit the post after two disastrous disastrous 2022 by-election losses in Wakefield and in Tiverton and Honiton.
The announcement comes after Sir Jacob endorsed former immigration minister Mr Jenrick earlier this week.
He told GB News: “Who do we want to lead us to the next general election? Who do we think can take on the Reverend Starmer? Who will be able to converse with Nigel Farage and see where that may go one way or another? Who can steal Nigel’s clothes, if necessary, which may be the best way of going about it?
“Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that that person is Robert Jenrick.”
Tory MP Richard Fuller took over as interim party chairman after fellow MP Richard Holden resigned the post after the general election.
It will be up to whoever becomes the new party leader to choose a chairman.
The final two candidates, chosen by the parliamentary party, must now secure the support of Conservative members across the country who will cast their votes ahead of the final result being announced on November 2.
Britain’s top pollster has warned that the Conservatives cannot win whether Mr Jenrick or Ms Badenoch ends up winning the Tory leadership contest.
Professor Sir John Curtice described the pair, battling it out in the last stage of the race to succeed Rishi Sunak, as “unknown quantities” who do not have what it takes to turn the party’s fortunes around.
“In short, despite their ideological stance, neither Ms Badenoch nor Mr Jenrick is necessarily well set to heal the electoral divide on the right,” he wrote in a damning article for The Independent.
