Follow the formbook when betting on Boris’s successor and choose an old Etonian
Five of the past 7 male Tory PMs were educated there
Within minutes of Boris being declared leader on Tuesday morning expect new betting markets on who will succeed him as CON leader, who’ll be his successor and how long will survive at Number 10.
When considering a factor to remember is that the form book shows us that Tories liked to be led by someone who was educated at Eton.
Going back to 1955 of the seven men who have become Conservative prime ministers five have been old Etonians.
That’s some record. Of these we had Etonians’ Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Sir Alec Alec Douglas Home, then some time later David Cameron and of course Boris Johnson. The only other male Tory Prime Ministers in the intervening period were Edward Heath and John Major both of them were educated at state schools.
William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith did not, of course, ever make it to Number 10. Even if their parents could have afforded it Margaret Thatcher and TMay would have been barred by their gender from getting into Eton.
So in choosing someone to bet on for a possible Boris successor this might be the moment for Rory Stewart who is an old Etonian and certainly has very different qualities than Johnson. He established himself as the surprise of the MP part of last month’s voting getting much further than was predicted.
I’ll be looking out for the early odds and if good enough my money will go on Rory.