Planning ahead: the political leadership campaigns that launched too soon

As any political adviser worth their salt will attest, it’s never too soon to start privately preparing for your candidate’s future leadership bid.Yet going too early with registering that all-important website risks telegraphing one’s intentions even before the starting gun has fired.Whoever is behind the site bearing her name, Angela Rayner is now facing awkward questions after it emerged that an unfinished site apparently touting her for Labour’s top job had briefly appeared online. Rayner’s team has dismissed the discovery as a “false flag” operation, but it does not appear to have been deliberately shared or leaked to journalists or political figures.The appearance of a site under construction in these circumstances is rare – but there is a long history of URLs being registered. In this case, the domain angelaforleader.co.uk was secured within minutes of the apparent publishing error. In other cases, URLs have been locked down to prevent proxies for a rival ‘squatting’ on a web address, or to get in ahead of online registrars who routinely buy domain names with a view to selling them later at a profit.In recent years though, various Conservative civil wars have meant that it has been Tory politicians who have been getting ready for contests by snapping up domain names at an advanced stage.Here are some of the most high-profile instances of would-be leaders jumping the gun.Rishi SunakThe Readyforrishi.com web address was registered a full six months before the would-be prime minister’s team registered his official website, Ready4Rishi.com, in July 2022 as he limbered to try to replace a tottering Boris Johnson at Number 10.Sunak’s spokesperson denied that his team was the owner of the first address, even if eagle-eyed observers noted that the spelling matched that of his campaign Twitter account.Liz TrussThe then foreign secretary registered her 2022 Conservative leadership campaign website, lizforleader.co.uk, days after Boris Johnson had survived a no-confidence vote in June that year.Truss officially launched her campaign on 10 July, eventually defeating Rishi Sunak and serving as prime minister for 49 days.Penny MordauntThe long-held ambitions of the then Portsmouth North MP appear to have been revealed by the digital footprint of her campaign website, pm4pm.com, for the 2022 Conservative leadership contest.Records show it was registered in May 2019, two months before Theresa May resigned as prime minister. Mordaunt was unsuccessful in the 2022 Tory leadership contest won by Liz Truss, and pulled out later that year after an abortive second bid.The website, pm4pm.com, was re-registered in May 2024 but Mordaunt lost her seat in the general election.Kemi BadenochWhile the current Tory leader went slightly off-piste last year with the name of her successful leadership campaign website, Renewal 2030, other records show that a number of others bearing her name had been registered some time before.One site, kemi4leader.com, was registered in April last year, months before Rishi Sunak resigned, and redirected to the Conservative party homepage. Another, backingbadenoch.co.uk, was updated weeks before Sunak stepped down and was seen as a grassroots initiative.Meanwhile, the consequences of both failing to secure a website, or taking due care with one secretly stored up, have been underlined on two high-profile occasions in the US.Jeb BushA failure by the team behind Jeb Bush’s ill-fated attempt to secure the Republican party’s presidential nomination to pay his renewal on jebbush.com was seized upon by Donald Trump’s camp. Those visiting the site were redirected to donaldjtrump.com.Mitt RomneyAfter he was defeated by Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, a “transition” website created for Mitt Romney in the event he had won went live. The site, with a banner of “The Office of the President-elect,” included the slogan: “Smaller, Simpler, Smarter: Believe in America.”