Grassroots Tories have said they want a leader who can unify the party but expect election losses until the 2030s.
Tory councillors praised James Cleverly, who has held a number of senior roles in government, as “calm” and “authoritative” after he became the first to announce his leadership bid.
Writing in The Daily Telegraph, the shadow Home Secretary said the party needed to “present an offer of unity, security, and prosperity” and “ditch the self-indulgent infighting” that has engulfed it in recent years.
Ex-cabinet minister Tom Tugendhat also launched his bid to become Conservative leader last night with a pledge to lead the party to election victory in 2029.
Other MPs have yet to announce their candidacies but they are expected to include shadow Housing Secretary Kemi Badenoch and the former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Dame Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Robert Jenrick are other possible contenders.
James Bond, a Conservative councillor in Welwyn Hatfield, where former defence secretary Grant Shapps lost his seat in the last election, said Mr Cleverly “is possibly the right person” for the job and stood out among the options.
He told i: “If you listen to him speak, he’s authoritative, he’s calm. He doesn’t get flustered and he answers most of the questions. When he doesn’t know, he’ll tell them he doesn’t know but he’ll find out.”
He said “all parties need someone to bring them together” and said Mr Cleverly was a “possible high contender for that”.
Mr Wood said Sir Oliver Dowden could also be a strong leader if he decided to run, praising his performance as deputy prime minister under Rishi Sunak.
Vijay Manro, a Conservative councillor in Swindon, where both Tory MPs lost their seats, including former justice secretary Robert Buckland, said the party needed to show the public a “united” front after losing votes to Reform.
He told i: “I heard James Cleverly say that he wants to unite the party, and that’s one thing that I will consider. Which candidate is going to do that and how? That is the big issue.”
Mr Manro, who is a refugee from Uganda, said immigration was a key issue on the doorstep that “has to be addressed” by the next leader.
“My father brought £50 to this country,” he said. “That’s where we started from. After nearly 50 years we’ve done very well. If you look at other Ugandan Asians, they are all doing well. So it’s not that we depend on the state. The refugees who come here want to work but they need the opportunity. That’s what we Conservatives want people to have – the opportunities, not state handouts.”
He said the previous government’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda, which was vocally supported by Ms Braverman, was not particularly effective as a deterrent because “France is not helping us”, and refugees who arrive there “have nowhere else to go but to come to England”.
“If there are illegal immigrants, they need to be assessed quickly, don’t just leave it for ages and not do anything,” he added. “We need to be seen to be managing it rather than just leaving it.”
He said the UK needed to work with other countries and address the root causes of illegal immigration, such as a lack of economic development and the legacies of colonialism.
Stuart Evans, a Conservative councillor in Boston, where the party lost its seat to Reform leader Richard Tice, was less convinced by the favourites being put forward as candidates.
“I don’t think it really wants to be one of the traditional people that we’ve seen for the last few years,” he told i. “You know, the Penny Mordaunts and the ones that have thrown their hat into the ring.
“I feel that somewhere lying in the background is a leader that we don’t know yet. I personally would give the temporary leadership back to [former leader] Iain Duncan Smith until a proper leader emerges in a couple of years’ time.”
He added: “There’s no way on earth we’re going to win the next election in 2029. So what’s the point? In fact, he’ll [Sir Keir Starmer] go a year early, I dare say, because they’ll still be quite popular then. So what’s the point in trying to get a leader?
“If you put the best that we’ve got in at the moment, all they’re going to be doing is arguing pointless arguments. They’ll be coming out with the same Tory stuff that we had before that.”
He said the Conservative Party was marred by infighting after Boris Johnson was found to have lied to parliament and was replaced by Liz Truss, whom he described as a “joke”.
“We as a Conservative Party are in an absolute mess,” he said. “Most of it is self-inflicted, but we really do need to learn that lesson. If we go putting a Suella Braverman or a Kemi Badenoch in as leader, all we are is the successor to Rishi Sunak. And we can’t be that. We have to take the next five, 10 years of a Labour government to get the Conservative Party back to governable.”
He said “edging a little bit to the right” might be what the party needs “simply because we must sort out the immigration problems”.
James Cantwell, another Conservative councillor in Boston, said immigration was a key concern in the town, which recorded the highest Leave vote in the EU Referendum.
Asked if the party should move further to the right, he told i: “I’ve always been in favour of the Conservative Party sticking to its core values: as low taxation as possible, good services, supporting law and order.”
Mr Cantwell added that members also want to see “stability” from their future leader.