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Defeated Robert Jenrick ‘s wife struggled to hide her disappointment today as the Tories picked Kemi Badenoch as their new leader instead of him.

Michal Berkner was expressive as the result was announced in central London today on live television.

The high-flying corporate lawyer, who has been described as ‘a force of nature’ by Tory MPs, began applauding Ms Badenoch’s win alongside her husband before trying to give up after a few seconds.

But she started again with a roll of her eyes as she realised that everyone else around her – including her defeated spouse – had kept going.

She then congratulated the party leader with a somewhat rictus grin before Ms Badenoch made her way to the stage to give her first speech as leader.

Kemi Badenoch becoming the first black leader of a Westminster party is an ‘important moment’ for both black Britons and the country as a whole, David Lammy has said.

The Foreign Secretary said in a post on X: ‘Your election as the first Black leader of a Westminster party is an important moment not only for Brits from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds, but for our whole country.’

Florence Eshalmoi, a Labour MP has congratulated Kemi ‘from one British Nigerian MP to another British Nigerian MP’.

Following his election loss, Robert Jenrick has posted on X congratulating Kemi on her win, but also asking the party to now unite behind her.

Michael Ashcroft a British-Belizean businessman, pollster and politician and former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party has announced on X that he has given £250,000 to the Conservative Party ‘on the basis that democracy needs an effective opposition’.

Bob Blackman, the chair of the 1922 Committee, told GB News that the threshold has been raised from 15% to 33% of the Conservative Party.

This would mean that 40 MPs would now be needed to trigger a vote of no confidence in Kemi Badenoch, rather than 18.

The broadcaster reports this change was made at a meeting of the 1922 Committee’s Executive last Wednesday.

Nigel Farage has uploaded a video to social media arguing that Kemi Badenoch will ‘make no difference’.

Reform deputy leader has slammed Badenoch for being part of a group of Tory politicians who ‘say one thing and do another’.

Richard Tice made the brutal comments just moments after her appointment as the new leader of the Conservative party, claiming she had failed to stand up for Britain and instead ‘stood up for her own career prospects and chauffeur-driven cars’.

Kemi Badenoch is another in a long line of Tory politicians who say one thing and do another… She said nothing while Rishi Sunak hit hard working people with record immigration, the small boats crisis, the highest taxes for seventy years, record NHS waiting lists and sky high crime.

Instead of standing up for Britain whilst in Government, she stood up for her own career prospects and chauffeur-driven cars.

She has failed the British public before and she will fail them again as leader of the Conservative Party.

Three previous Tory prime ministers have urged the Conservatives to unite around their new leader.

Rishi Sunak said she would ‘renew our party, stand up for Conservative values, and take the fight to Labour’, before adding ‘let’s unite behind her’.

Boris Johnson argued that Badenoch had his full support and she could ‘expose Starmer’s failings’.

And David Cameron added it is time for the Tories to ‘prove ourselves to the British people’, adding ‘ know all too well that it can be one of the toughest jobs in British politics’.

Kemi and her husband Hamish Badenoch celebrate after winning the Conservative Party leadership.

The pair were sweetly pictured embracing after the vote result was announced.

Writing on X Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat leader offered his congratulations Kemi Badenoch on being elected leader of the Conservative Party.

But went on to slam the party for being ‘too divided, out-of-touch and unable to accept Conservative failures over the past years.’

Adding that the Liberal Democrats will continue to ‘offer the best opposition’.

The total turnout of 72.8 per cent is the lowest since the system was changed in 1998.

The turnout last time around in the contest between Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak in summer 2022 was 82.2 pecent.

At 56.6 percent, this is also the lowest vote share for a Tory leadership winner, even Ms Truss received 57.4 percent and therefore the tightest race on record.

Read the full analysis from MailOnline’s political editor James Tapfield here:

Former PM Rishi Sunak took to X to congratulate Kemi on her win.

The moment brings to an end a four-month contest to succeed Rishi Sunak that saw bruising blue-on-blue attacks and claims of ‘dirty tricks’.

In Kemi’s victory speech the new leader doubles down on the work to be done, as she says we want to ‘bring back’ the voters.

She faces a mammoth task to restore Tory fortunes and see off the threat from Reform after the astonishing July election rout that reduced the party to just 121 MPs.

They will also have to achieve the revival without some of the surviving ‘big beasts’. James Cleverly – seen as the favourite for leader until his shock eviction in the final round of voting by MPs last month – has announced he will not take a job in the shadow cabinet.

Former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has also said he will not seek to serve, as has ex-deputy PM Oliver Dowden. There are rumours that Sir Oliver will quit the Commons, with ousted Cabinet stalwart Grant Shapps said to be eyeing his seat.

She concludes her speech by saying it’s time to reset ‘our politics’ and give the country a ‘new start’.

‘Time to get down to business, time to renew.’

Minutes after the result was declared, the prime minister has congratulated Kemi Badenoch on winning the Conservative leadership election.

Congratulations Kemi Badenoch on becoming the Conservative Party’s new leader.

The first Black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country.

I look forward to working with you and your party in the interests of the British people.

It is the most enormous honour to be elected to this role, to lead the party that I love – the party that has given me so much.

I hope that I will be able to repay that debt.

Ms Badenoch goes on to thank Rishi Sunak wishing him the best for the future, saying:

No one worked harder in such difficult times.

And, in tribute to Robert Jenrick, she says:

We have all been impressed by your energy and your determination.

She says she has “no doubt” Mr Jenrick has a “key role to play” in the party for “many years to come”.

Bob Blackman praises Kemi Badenoch for her victory saying her appointment at becoming the first black party leader is ‘another glass ceiling shattere’.

Kemi Badenoch has won the Tory leadership election.

The total number of Conservtaive members who could vote was 131, 680, with a turnout of 72.8 percent.

Bob Blackman, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, is about to announce the new leader.

As Richard Fuller, the interim Tory chairman, thanks those involved in the campaigns.

Thank you to the thousands of Conservative Party members who have helped make this leadership election so engaging and for the crucial role that our members played putting all our candidates through their paces at event right across the United Kingdom.

And a special word of thanks to all six candidates, to Tom, to Rob, to Priti, to Mel, to Kemi and to James, who put themselves forward, took the scrutiny of their parliamentary colleagues, the media and most importantly of members like you.

Whoever is announced as our new leader needs our full support.

Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick have both said they would serve in the other’s shadow cabinet if they lost the Conservative leadership race on Saturday.

The outcome of the ballot of party members will be announced in central London at 11am, bring the bitter contest to a conclusion after nearly four months.

Both candidates are understood to be preparing to offer shadow cabinet jobs to all five of the other Tory leadership contenders if they are victorious on Saturday.

That means James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat, Mel Stride and Priti Patel will all be offered shadow ministerial roles, in addition to the loser from the two final candidates.

Half of all voters do not believe the Conservatives are currently relevant to British politics.

In the latest YouGov poll 51 percent said the Tories are not very relevant or not relevant at all.

Meanwhile only 19 percent said they cared about the current contest to replace Rishi Sunak, while 71 per cent said they did not care very much or did not care at all.

Only one in six Britons thought Kemi Badenoch (16 per cent) or Robert Jenrick (17 per cent) would make a good Tory leader. Thirty-five per cent said Mrs Badenoch would make a bad leader, while 31 per cent said the same of Mr Jenrick.

A Labour spokesperson has slammed the Tories, claiming they have ‘learnt nothing’ from their recent failures.

As they added that both candidates offer ‘more of the same chaos, division and reckless ideas’.

The choice is between two people who each played their part in 14 years of Conservative chaos and decline, and who have refused to apologise it.

Whoever wins, they have learnt nothing.

Mr Sunak has insisted he will not leave Parliament, but is expected to return to the backbenches.

Sunak will have been leader of the opposition for 121 days, longer than any defeated prime minister since James Callaghan lost in 1979, according to analysis for the Guardian by the Institute for Government.

Kemi Badenoch, Priti Patel, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly, Tom Tugendhat and Mel Stride started out this contest in July as potential future leaders of the Tory party.

But by September Dame Priti Patel became the first to get knocked out in the first ballot among her colleagues.

On 10 September, five became four when a second Tory MP vote knocked out Mel Stride.

The final four had a number of opportunities to speak directly to Conservative members at the party’s conference in Birmingham, between 29 September and 2 October.

On 8 October, Tom Tugendhat was eliminated from the contest in the third round, and James Cleverly was knocked out the following day.

This left Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick as the final pair to be put to party members to pick the winner.

Shadow home secretary James Cleverly says he will not accept a frontbench role from the next leader of the Conservative Party.

The winning candidate – Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick – is likely to carry out an immediate reshuffle of the Tory frontbench team.

But Cleverly has told the Financial Times he will return to the backbenches, rather than serve in either candidate’s shadow cabinet.

Robert Jenrick, 42, was elected under David Cameron in 2014, he was one of the rising star ministers who swung behind Boris Johnson as prime minister and was later a vocal supporter of Rishi Sunak.

But he resigned as immigration minister in December 2023, claiming Sunak’s government was breaking its promises to cut immigration.

The MP for Newark in Nottinghamshire says he had a ‘working-class’ upbringing in Wolverhampton. He read history at Cambridge University and worked at Christie’s auctioneers before winning a by-election.

After a long ministerial career where he was seen as mild-mannered, he is said to have been “‘radicalised’ by his time at the Home Office and has focused his campaign on a promise to slash immigration and leave the European Convention on Human Rights to ‘stand for our nation and our culture, our identity and our way of life’.

He has put forward more policies than his rival, but attracted criticism for some of his claims – including that Britain’s former colonies owe the Empire a ‘debt of gratitude’.

Kemi Badenoch, 44, is the former trade secretary, who was born in London to middle-class Nigerian parents but spent most of her childhood in Lagos.

After moving back to the UK aged 16, she stayed with a family friend while taking her A-levels, and has spoken of her time working at McDonald’s as a teenager.

Having studied computer science at Sussex University, she then worked as a software engineer before entering London politics and becoming MP for Saffron Walden in Essex in 2017.

Ms Badenoch prides herself on being outspoken and has said the Conservatives lost because they ‘talked right and governed left’. But her critics paint her as abrasive and prone to misspeaking.

Welcome to MailOnline’s live blog of the final vote for the next Conservative leader.

The outcome of the ballot of party members will be announced in central London at 11am, bring the bitter contest to a conclusion after nearly four months.

Whoever wins will face a mammoth task to restore Tory fortunes and see off the threat from Reform after the astonishing July election rout that reduced the party to just 121 MPs.