Former home secretary Dame Priti Patel has said it is “time to put unity before personal vendetta” as she threw her hat into the ring for the Tory party leadership.

Entering the increasingly crowded field to replace Rishi Sunak, the senior Conservative MP laid the blame for their worst-ever defeat on 4 July not on the “heroic” party members, but the politicians who “fell out and left us short”.

Dame Priti is the fifth candidate but the first woman to formally announce she is joining the race for the top job, with Mel Stride, Tom Tugendhat, James Cleverly and Robert Jenrick already having declared.