Rishi Sunak has been readopted as the Conservative candidate for Richmond and Northallerton at the next general election, according to Politics.co.uk, which cited a post by the former prime minister on X on Friday evening.
Sunak wrote, according to the report: "Thank you to our local members for readopting me as the Conservative candidate for Richmond and Northallerton."
The reported readoption follows speculation after the Conservatives' 2024 general election defeat that Sunak would leave the Commons before the end of the parliament. He led the party to 121 seats at that election, which the House of Commons Library records as the lowest number it had won at any general election since 1832.
Neither the Richmond and Northallerton Conservative Association nor Conservative Campaign Headquarters has confirmed the readoption. The date of the members' meeting and the process followed are not known. Sunak has not been reported as saying whether he would serve a full parliamentary term if re-elected.
Sunak, who was prime minister from 2022 to 2024, was first elected as an MP in May 2015. He sat for Richmond (Yorks) until 2024, when boundary changes created the successor seat of Richmond and Northallerton. The general election of 4 July 2024 was the first fought on the new boundaries.
He won the new seat with a majority of 12,185 over Labour's Tom Wilson, equal to 25.1% of the valid votes cast, UK Parliament records show. Sunak took 47.5% of the vote, Labour 22.4% and Reform UK's Lee Taylor 14.7%, on a turnout of 65.7%.
Doubts about his future surfaced within months of that result. In October 2024 the Express reported, citing a Conservative source, that Sunak was likely to stand down and trigger a by-election timed to coincide with the May 2025 local elections, according to an account of the report published by Left Foot Forward. No by-election took place.
Early the following month, an unnamed source close to Sunak rejected the suggestion in comments carried in reports attributed to the Guardian. The source said: "Rishi's a proud Yorkshire MP and he considers it the greatest of privileges to continue to serve his constituents as the MP for Richmond and Northallerton."
The source added: "He's not standing down."
Sunak returned to the backbenches in November 2024 after Kemi Badenoch was elected Conservative leader. Voting records show he has continued to take part in Commons divisions this year, most recently in July.
No general election has been called.
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