‘ This isn’t a TV reality show. MPs are picking our next PM, so it’s time they all grew up’
LET’S not lose sight of what’s happening here. A handful of people are picking our next Prime Minister, someone who potentially will lead the country for the next two years.
this isn’t about who’s up or who’s down in the Conservative Party. It’s much bigger than that. Or, at least, it should be.
Yet, depressingly, most of the coverage thus far has dwelled in nearpornographic detail on the narrow obsessions of the Westminster Bubble. Yesterday, it was the turn of suella Braverman to be eliminated from the tory leadership race. ‘sue who?’ you may well ask. Most people wouldn’t know the difference between suella and sue ellen, from Dallas.
But for a few days she was being touted as a possible PM, at least by the couple of dozen MPs who voted for her. As John Mcenroe used to protest: ‘You can not be serious!’ After Braverman was unceremoniously dumped from the race, speculation turned to which way her supporters would jump next.
You might wonder why she bothered standing in the first place, given that she never had a snowball-in-hell’s chance of winning. And why, after the first round made that glaringly obvious, she didn’t withdraw gracefully? then again, it is impossible to underestimate the inter-galactic levels of self-delusion which envelop most politicians.
Same could be said for ex-military man tom tugendhat, who is soldiering on despite actually getting fewer votes than he did first time round.
If he had a genuine sense of duty, he’d have fallen on his ceremonial sword at 3.05pm yesterday.
Neither tugendhat nor Kemi Badenoch, the Countdown Conundrum candidates, have any hope of making the final cut. And they know it. What they’re doing is putting down a marker for the future and angling for a Cabinet job under the eventual victor.
Badenoch cuts an impressive figure, makes all the right antiwoke noises and is clearly one to watch. But she isn’t ready for prime time yet. It can’t help her cause that in some quarters she is portrayed as the plaything of Michael Gove, a mere glove puppet picked to be the stalking horse for Rishi sunak.
Gove is said to be on manoeuvres for the former Chancellor, after deciding against standing himself. Presumably, he hopes to get his reward in the treasury if Dishi Rishi triumphs.
But Gove’s machinations are a sideshow. What matters now is not the vicious infighting in the tory ranks, fuelled by that malevolent Machiavelli manqué Dominic Cummings and his wee gang of munchkins, who did their arrogant worst to destabilise Boris Johnson.
Call Me Dave’s characterisation of Cummings as a ‘career sociopath’ was bang on the money. even those of us who were grateful for his role in securing Brexit must acknowledge that post-referendum he has been a malignant influence on British politics.
If sunak wins, Cummings and his poisonous box of tricks will be back inside the tent, at least metaphorically. And that is what should concern us all, not the internal machinations of the Conservative Party. the sooner they cut to the chase, the better.
The Government of Britain is in full headless chicken mode. there’s no one in charge of the clattering train, to quote the great John Junor, formerly of this parish. Boris is demob happy. He’s packed his bags and headed off to make a fortune writing books and starring on the public speaking circuit, especially in the U.s.
Whatever his manifest failings in No 10, I don’t begrudge him a penny. He ushered Brexit across the line and for that deserves the eternal thanks of a grateful nation, or at least the 17.4 million of us who voted Leave.
He rescued us from the theresa May catastrophe and saw off the threat of a Corbynista socialist junta, which Keir starmer would have served faithfully.
Whoever comes next must retain and build upon the best bits of Boris, while tackling the immediate problems facing the nation and addressing those pressing areas he so carelessly neglected, such as the debilitating WFH culture.
Frankly, it seems absurd that this leadership election is scheduled to drag on for another seven weeks and we won’t have a new Prime Minister until september.
History reminds us that anything can happen in August, and frequently does, from Britain entering World War I in 1914 to last year’s hurried retreat from Afghanistan. On the international front, who would bet against Putin escalating the war in Ukraine and launching tactical nuclear weapons? What if the Russian president decided to attack British targets in retaliation for our material support of Zelensky?
At home, we are facing twin energy and cost- of-living crises, which demand urgent attention. surely it is not beyond the wit of the Conservative Party to expedite this contest and install a new PM sooner than september.
It is by now all but certain that the final two will come from sunak, Penny Mordaunt and Liz truss. I’ve never been convinced by tV debates, which are stage-managed, superficial and distort reality. Remember when ‘I agree with Nick’ Clegg was briefly the most popular politician in Britain?
It’s important that all the candidates are exposed to the most rigorous scrutiny. sunak was the nation’s pin-up at the start of Covid when he unveiled his furlough package which helped secure millions of jobs.
But he’s also brought us the biggest tax burden in 70 years, since Clement Attlee’s post-war Labour government. He seems to have no answers to the post-pandemic economic crisis other than tax, tax and tax again.
sunak’s too slick by far, for my liking, a Blairite technocrat, a paid-up member of the international elite — more at home in Davos than in Daventry.
And, don’t forget, almost nothing was known about him when he became Chancellor. subsequent digging uncovered the fact that he retained a U.s. Green Card while in the treasury and his wife enjoyed non- dom status, potentially saving her paying millions of pounds in UK taxes.
tellingly, sunak cut his teeth working for the banking behemoth Goldman sachs, once described as: ‘A great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.’
Liz truss is a known quantity, who grew up in Leeds, went to a comprehensive school and has a visceral understanding of those Red Wall voters the Conservatives must win over again at the next election.
she’s a poor public speaker, admittedly, but according to those who work with her has the courage of her convictions and the energy to see them through. the question mark is her decision to campaign for Remain in 2016. My hunch is that truss did that out of loyalty to Cameron, who backed her when the so- called ‘turnip taliban’ in her Norfolk constituency tried to derail her career over a long- forgotten affair with another tory MP.
Certainly, of late she’s been solid on the need to face down the EU over Northern Ireland trade barriers. sometimes converts to a cause are more zealous than those who have been on the long march from day one.
If Iain Duncan smith insists she’s now a full- on Brexiteer, that’ll do for me.
Which brings us to Penny Mordaunt, currently Darling of the Fleet and making a bigger splash than anyone could have predicted. Polls show that she’d beat both sunak and truss in a head-to-head.
But would she? I’d take those sample polls of the membership in the shires with a shovel-load of salt. Maybe Mordaunt, like Badenoch, would be worth a punt if the party was in Opposition and rebuilding from scratch.
But as an oven-ready Prime Minister? sorry, can’t see it.
With her curves and luscious mane she might look good nailed to the prow of Nelson’s flagship HMs Victory, docked in her Portsmouth constituency. But as a national figurehead, right now she doesn’t pass muster.
since Penny-For-Your-thoughts declared her candidacy, we’ve discovered she’s swallowed the whole woke agenda. I can’t imagine the tory ladies in Much Binding In the Marsh backing someone who isn’t sure whether a woman can have a penis and tried to push through a Bill referring to expectant mothers as ‘pregnant people’.
Who knows what else we’ll find once the dogs of war continue to scratch away at the surface.
Wise counsel is warning against her. Former Brexit negotiator Lord (David) Frost — a substantial and influential figure in the
If Sunak wins, Cummings and his poison will be back
Liz Truss was raised in Leeds and understands the Red Wall voters the Tories must win over again
Mordaunt has swallowed the woke agenda
party who has come out for Fizzy Lizzie — said yesterday that PM4PM would be an absolute disaster. Frost has ‘grave reservations’ about his ex- deputy Mordaunt, especially when it comes to dealing with the EU.
In an interview with TalkTV, Frost delivered a damning indictment. ‘I’m sorry to say this, she did not master the necessary detail in the negotiations last year.
‘She wouldn’t always deliver tough messages to the EU when that was necessary and I’m afraid she wasn’t fully accountable or always visible. sometimes I didn’t even know where she was.
‘I’m afraid this became such a problem that after six months I had to ask the PM to move her on and find somebody else to support me.’
Were the 83 MPs who voted for Mordaunt yesterday aware of any of this? Or were they just weighing up their own prospects of advancement if she gets the job?
Just like the unseemly haste with which Boris was removed, if the tories rush to install Penny Mordaunt in No 10 they may quickly come to regret it.
This is an election about the immediate future direction of Britain, not a TV reality show.
The turbulent times we live in demand a serious Prime Minister, tried, tested and not found wanting. It’s just a pity Lord Frost isn’t standing.