THE Conservative leadership race has collapsed into lurid smears, including that one candidate has a drug problem, top Tories say.
Campaign insiders from multiple leadership teams have told The Sun that in September the contest turned so nasty, some candidates could not even trust their own staff.
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One senior aide who worked on a bid alleges their team was infiltrated by a “spy”.
They said: “We had someone join who we eventually discovered was secretly working for another candidate.
“He deliberately sabotaged events and made our campaign look incompetent.
“We found out eventually and kicked him off.”
An insider who worked on a different campaign said their candidate was falsely accused of having a “drug problem”.
They said: “During the leadership race people became, metaphorically, violent.
“Some aides ran around parliament warning MPs that our candidate had a drug problem which is obviously a complete lie.”
The long drawn out race will finally come to a head on November 2, after party members vote to crown either Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick.
Both wannabe leaders will first face two head-to-head debates on GB News and the BBC.
Tory leadership results – fourth round
THE fourth round results:
Kemi Badenoch: 42
Robert Jenrick: 41
James Cleverly: 37
How the contest works:
September 4: First round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate
September 10: Second round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate
September 29 – October 2: Final four candidates make their pitches at Conservative party conference in Birmingham
October 8: Third round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate
October 9: Fourth round of Tory MP voting to eliminate one candidate. The final two go to a vote of the wider party membership.
November 2: New Tory leader announced
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