The MP, who has served as both foreign secretary and home secretary, told the Financial Times he felt “liberated” by the leadership campaign and did not want to be “boxed back into a narrow band” with a frontbench role.
Mr Cleverly had been expected to make the final two of the leadership election as the standard bearer for the Tory moderates after topping the ballot in the penultimate round of MP voting.
But he slipped to a shock third place in the final round, leaving the party members the choice of Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick.
The winner of the contest will be announced on Saturday, and Ms Badenoch has already indicated that her leadership rivals would be welcome in her shadow cabinet should she win.
But after nearly seven years on the Conservative front bench, Mr Cleverly has now indicated he intends to campaign on a range of issues as a backbencher, including education, the economy, Britain’s ageing population and social and cultural questions about what it means to be British.
