Hello and welcome to The Rundown, a podcast from Politics Home.

I'm your host, Alan Tolhurst, and this week we're looking at the future of the Conservative Party,

as although Parliament might be in a well-needed summer recess, the race to replace Rishi-Soonak

has started in earnest, as six candidates made onto the starting line for a contest that runs from now into November.

As well as to deciding who will be the leader opposition, the contest is also a debate about

the future of the direction of the political party, which having won four elections in a row

suffered its worst ever election defeat last month.

There's no shortage of people offering a diagnosis for what earned wrong, but who is offering

the right solutions to turn the Tories around?

And can anyone truly unite a party, riven by several years, regicide, infighting and

recommendation?

Will we to discuss all of that?

I'm delighted to say I have guests representing each of the six who've thrown their hat into

the ring.

Later on, we'll hear from Andrew Bowie, who is supporting favourite favourite Pity Patel and Mark Garnier, one of those supporting Mel Stride's leadership bid, as well as Simon

Fell, former Barrow MP and James Cleverley supporter. So, Zaki, I'm going to start with you a month

on from the election. What are your kind of thoughts looking back at that defeat and kind of where

the party goes now? I said, you're backing Pretty Patel. Why do you just think that she's the best person to try and kind of repair the party from where it was? Well, Alan, first of all, thank you for having me,

and well done on picking such a gentlemanly panel. I think you've got some great people in.

It's great to see Simon, who's a fantastic friend and really missed in Parliament.

Maybe that's where I start. We can't hide the fact that we've had an

absolute drubbing in the last general election. And for me, I just think we need someone who's

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