Can we expect his successor to be a comprehensive boy/girl?

There’s been a bit of movement on the Betfair next Tory leader market for David Davis who is now second favourite. There is almost no liquidity in the betting and in betting terms this doesn’t mean very much.

It does however provide a peg to raise the question about what the next Tory leader’s background will be and here I make a prediction – for like David Davis the job will not go to someone who was privately educated.

Dave is the first Conservative PM in nearly half a century to have gone to a public school and when time comes for a new leader the party will revert to excluding those who with elite backgrounds

A key factor in the the next Tory leader race will be who gets promoted in the re-shuffle that’s being promised for later this year. From what we’ve seen so far it doesn’t look good for male Tory MPs with elite educational backgrounds. For the only changes he’s had to make to deal with the Liam Fox resignation have been the promotions for Justine Greening and Chloe Smith.

The former went to a comprehensive in Rotherham and then Southampton University while the latter was educated at comprehensives in Norfolk and then York University.

Could one of those two take over the top job?

@MikeSmithsonOGH