Conservative leadership race: Who is James Cleverly?
James Cleverly is the 11th person to throw his hat into the ring in the race to be the next Conservative Party leader.
Wednesday 29 May 2019 20:20, UK
James Cleverly, the Conservative MP for Braintree, is one of the candidates running to replace Theresa May as Tory leader and prime minister.
Just six months into his parliamentary career he famously said he'd snog Theresa May in a game of "snog, marry, avoid" on the radio.
"When the prime minister invited me into Number 10 I thought 'maybe this is the moment'," he said on Sky News' Brexit-free podcast 'Any Other Business' about the moment he was made a minister.
"But she asked me to serve in Her Majesty's government instead. Which is also good."
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Born in south London in 1969 to a British father and mother from Sierra Leone, Mr Cleverly appeared set for a career in the army before sustaining an injury. He worked in the publishing industry and set up his own business before being elected in 2008 to the London Assembly.
There he worked closely with Boris Johnson, serving as the then-mayor's youth ambassador. A big part of this role involved dealing with youth crime and violence.
Mr Cleverly described the time in his late teens when he himself was stopped and searched.
"It happens," he said. "You don't like it, you wish it were not the case. But ultimately we've got to recognise it is part of a recipe of interventions."
In the last general election, no more than 30% of voters in all age categories up to age 40 voted Conservative.
"We do have a challenge," Mr Cleverly said. "There is nothing inherently left-wing about young people in the UK. If we put forward a credible offer, then I think we can make substantial inroads into that conversation we need to have with young people."
The former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party believes housing and jobs are central to winning back the youth vote,
"We have got to build more affordable homes in the south of England, we've just got to," he said. "And we need to find some way of not just having people in work with a salary - which we've been really good at - but also having that sense of pride… and that means good quality jobs that carry kudos."
It's not just young voters, though. On 'Any Other Business' Mr Cleverly recalled seeing the National Front march past the end of his street in south London in the 1970s, and sees echoes with the present.
He said: "What we see then… were people who felt they weren't being listened to, their fears and concerns weren't being addressed and what we found with the National Front was an organisation that was very happy to jump on fears and concerns of good people.
"What we're seeing now is good people with genuine concerns who feel marginalised and vilified and mocked.
"I'm very critical of MPs when they use the word 'gammon' and that kind of stuff. When there are legitimate concerns and frustrations it is never cool to marginalise and ridicule the people who have those concerns."
Mr Cleverly believes he knows what the next leader must do to win back disillusioned voters, young and old.
"You've got to have a winning mindset," he said.
"This is not about managed decline this is about getting on the front foot... We've got to engage with young people, we've got to engage with BAME Britain, we've got to engage with the wider world, we've got to be much more explicitly optimistic and positive about the offer that we've got and be much more proud of our narrative."
The 'Any Other Business' podcast always finishes with a round of quickfire questions,
Who would be a better leader, him or Boris Johnson?
"Me," he said.