My hunch is that older Tory members, the ones that do not have an email address, are disproportionately more likely to favour Boris Johnson over other candidates, which could upset a few expectations. But this is further proof that Sir Graham Brady and the rest of the 1922 are terrible at organising things, I get the feeling they couldn’t organise a farting contest in a baked beans factory. The result of the second Tory leadership contest of 2022 could be…
If Boris Johnson is going to be stopped becoming Tory leader and Prime Minister next week Tory MPs and members will need to see that Boris Johnson isn’t best placed to get the best Tory result at the next election, that Boris Johnson is a loser. The next election will be the first Labour v Con fight that Boris Johnson won’t be facing an elderly socialist opponent that some have accused of antisemitism. It looks like Sunak might give the…
Just a week or so ago, Jeremy Hunt was appointed Chancellor and immediately and successfully set about trying to restore the UK to some semblance of financial credibility after the car crash of Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget and subsequent events. The PM who appointed him, and whose government he seemed, for a few days, to be effectively running, is now past her sell-by date, and a whole new Tory psychodrama has erupted, centred around the ego of Boris Johnson. Jeremy Hunt’s…
This could all be over by 2pm on Monday The pressure is on CON MPs not to let the next leader to be decided in a membership ballot which is good for Sunak. They’ll try to soak up enough nominations that prevents others getting to the 100 target. If it goes to a ballot then Johnson will have a better chance of winning. So that means that Tory MPs are going to be overwhelmed this weekend by efforts to get…
Farewell then Liz Truss: 45 days, 1 mini-Budget, 1 resignation, 2 monarchs, 2 Chancellors, 3 sackings and 3 PMQs. Those setting pub quiz questions will forever be in your debt. As for the runners: Sunak: sensibly stayed away from the Cabinet. Campaign slogan: “I bloody told you so!“ Hunt: appears to be calm and a grown up. Probably the only one willing to speak (and implement) some hard truths to both the party and the country. Mordaunt: only if you…
The money’s also going on Mordaunt and Johnson What a day and, as seemed likely overnight, Truss decided to call it a day and now we have another CON leadership contest with it all being sorted this month. My guess is that this will not go to the members but there will be an agreement that whoever is a second after the MP voting rounds will pull out and leave it to the one who’s top choice of the parliamentary…