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It’s been an interesting morning watching one Tory hopeful after another launch their campaigns to succeed Mr. Johnson. Some are making a virtue of promising early tax cuts if they win while others are making a virtue of not rushing into such moves. At one point Mordaunt took over the favourite slot but then Rishi had his launch and normality was resumed. The big hurdle for all is getting to the next stage which requires them to get 20 other…

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Is that being too harsh? We now know much more about how the Conservative leadership contest is going to operate with the outcome being revealed in the first week of September. At least it is pretty certain are that the winner will be able to move into Number 10 as Prime Minister and have perhaps two years in the top job. But what about after that? Whoever it is has got a massive task ahead simply to ensure that the…

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Would she be Starmer’s worst nightmare? One of the interesting moves in the CON leadership contest is a statement of support from Michael Gove for Johnson’s successor. She’s currently the Minister of State for Local Government and Communities and her boss used to be Michael Gove who has had a big impact on previous Tory leadership races. A quick search on YouTube finds her coming over as a very effective speaker. This is how James Forsyth in the Speccie rates…

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Today is a big day in the contest to choose the next CON leader and of course next prime minister. The 1922 committee of Conservative backbench MPs will be meeting later to decide and then announce the various rules of the contest. From reports that we have the idea is to concentrate the first part of the process as much as possible so that it is fully complete before the House of Commons rises for the summer recess next week….

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It may seem churlish to speak about Sir Keir Starmer’s (un)electability given we’ve seen four polls this week with Labour at least 11% ahead but there’s always been a nagging feeling that Starmer’s position was distorted by Boris Johnson’s multiple inadequacies. That first tweet is quite damning for Starmer, his popularity is based on Boris Johnson’s palpable inadequacies, so leading Boris Johnson in leadership ratings is a bit like winning an award for being the tallest dwarf. So if the…

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If I were to succeed Boris Johnson as Prime Minister the first thing I would do is scrub Downing Street with the strongest industrial bleach in the world to get rid of the stain and stench of Boris Johnson, to make sure his assault and corrosive behaviour on the ethics and probity of government had been removed. The ignobility and infamy of appointing Chris Pincher as Deputy Chief Whip despite knowing about allegations about his behaviour might be topped by…

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