Agency veteran turned MP will run for Conservative leader - report

The veteran founder of Hunters, Kevin Hollinrake, is reported to be in the race to be Conservative Party leader. 

He is MP for Thirsk and Maldon and according to the Sun newspaper he is expected to announce he is running.

The race to become leader has not officially started, nor has a timetable been agreed by the 121 Tory MPs left following Labour’s landslide win in the General Election.

Kevin Hollinrake co-founded Hunters in the 1990s and remained chairman after being elected to Parliament in 2015.

When Hunters was taken over by The Property Franchise Group in 2021, his of 13.3% stake in the firm he founded was reported to be worth £3.3m. 

He said at the time: “We founded Hunters almost three decades ago with a single small office in York and a huge ambition to offer a brilliant service to our customers and to become the nation’s favourite property agency.”

Hunters now has more than 200 offices, operating under a ‘territory-based franchise’, model relaunched two years ago under TPFG’s ownership.

Although never given a Cabinet position under any of the Tory Prime Ministers of recent years - and the Sun describes him as “a little-known Tory MP” - Hollinrake is no stranger to political controversy. 

Back in spring 2020, in the early days of the Covid pandemic, Hollinrake tweeted about the then-government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan, writing:“No personal guarantees, no fees, 0 per cent interest for 12m, up to £5m. Our business will certainly use this.” 

An independent councillor in Hollinrake’s local authority claimed to be appalled that Hunters was benefitting from the scheme when so many in the area were allegedly not receiving the help they needed.

In the same year there was also a Twitter-spat between Hollibrake and footballer Marcus Rashford over parenting and poverty.