Mr Shapps’s campaign has received backing from the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice.
Mr Shapps, 53, was elected as the MP for Welwyn Hatfield in 2005, became vice-chairman of the Conservative party in 2007 and was co-chairman of the party and Minister without Portfolio in David Cameron’s government from 2012 to 2015.
In 2019, he received his current Cabinet post from Mr Johnson.
A former president of the youth movement BBYO, he is a member of Potters Bar and Brookman Park United Synagogue.
In an interview with the JC in 2010 he said it was “absolutely inevitable” that the Palestinians would have to have their own state.
He would be the first Jewish leader of the party since Michael, now Lord Howard, who headed it from 2003 to 2005.
