Conservatives have suggested that the former home secretary Suella Braverman is losing support as a potential party leader, as some who lost votes across southern England privately urged colleagues to resist a lurch to the right.

A number of MPs now see Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel and Kemi Badenoch, all of whom have ruled out a deal with the hard-right Reform leader Nigel Farage, as more viable candidates.

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Strategists for a number of candidates are analysing the records of the 121 remaining MPs. “It’s not a Faragist party,” said one. “Anyone who pursues that will lose.”

Another senior Tory said: “It must be more than banging on about immigration. Labour’s weak spot is delivering on their promise of growth. That is going to become a big debate in British politics.”

One former MP said: “There are no more Conservative MPs in Oxfordshire. That is not because we were not similar enough to Nigel Farage. It is because we were incompetent.”

The former justice secretary Robert Buckland, who lost his seat on Friday, warned the party not to flirt with Reform. “Letting in Farage is like letting a fox into the henhouse. He is a French poujadiste, not a British Conservative,” he said.