Former Tory chairman Andrew Stephenson endorses James Cleverly. (Image: Getty)
I joined the Conservatives when I was 16 and have supported the party ever since. Before becoming an MP I was a volunteer, activist, Association Chairman and an Area officer. I was elected as the Member of Parliament for Pendle in 2010; at that point it had been held by Labour for 18 years. As someone who won a marginal seat, I know that the strength of the Conservative Party comes from our members and activists. I saw this more than ever when I was asked to serve as Party Chairman following the resignation of , overseeing the process of the 2022 leadership contest. That summer I was out and about in dozens of constituencies, campaigning in marginal seats across the country alongside hundreds of activists.Today, I am proud to endorse as leader of the Conservative Party. I am a huge believer that our members should be at the heart of this leadership contest and James gets that. Like me, he has been a Chairman of the Conservative Party. He oversaw the 2019 general election campaign and got us battle ready so that we could win the 80 seat majority that allowed to break the deadlock and get done.Today, James has set out his plan for our Party. He is very clear; we don’t have a second to waste if we are to get back to winning ways ahead of the local elections in May. We need excellent candidates in place across the country sooner rather than later, and we need to make sure that our members and activists are proud to get out there and sell our Conservative vision again.I have worked with James for a number of years. He is by far the most experienced candidate and I have always been impressed by his sense of duty. There is no drama with James; he just gets on with the job. He has been fiercely loyal to successive Prime Ministers and is the candidate that can reach across to all parts of the Party.Fixing the Party will take a good deal of hard work; I know that James is ready for it. He is the one that can take the fight to , win back the voters that we lost to Labour, Reform and the Liberal Democrats, and crucially he can bring back those who simply decided to stay at home.We have just suffered the worst defeat in our Party’s history. If we make the right choice now, we can come back from this.