Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2005

The 2005 Conservative leadership election was announced by party leader Michael Howard on May 6 2005, when he announced that he would be stepping down as leader in the near future. However he stated that he would not depart until a review of the rules for the leadership election had been conducted, given much dissatisfaction about the current system.

Party Conference

At the 2005 Conservative Party conference, each of the five announced candidates at the time was allowed a 20 minute speech. This was seen by many as the start of the leadership campaign by each of the candidates and their speeches were closely analysed by party members and the media. Many felt that front-runner (at the time of his speech) David Davis had performed rather poorly, while the speeches of Kenneth Clarke, Liam Fox, Sir Malcom Rifkind and David Cameron were much better. This led to a rapid change in the odds of the five candidates on the betting markets - on the morning of the 6th October, David Davis was the clear leader and David Cameron third, but by the evening of the same day the two had swapped places. By the end of the conference, David Cameron had become the front runner and Ken Clarke and David Davis closely behind.

Related Topics:
The odds - Betting markets

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The conference was also seen as a similar re-run of the Conservative's 1963 conference, where there was also a race to become leader.

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