The leadership contest is yet another wasted opportunity for the Tories

SIR – It is a tragedy that Kemi Badenoch has not survived until “the final” of the leadership contest, as she was undoubtedly the best and last chance for the Conservatives to redeem themselves in the eyes of the wider electorate before the next election. This is yet another opportunity that the party has wasted.

While the remaining three candidates undoubtedly have their talents, they look and sound like yesterday’s man and women, bereft of original ideas and with precious little to offer an increasingly sceptical public. The Conservatives will come to regret this turn of events as electoral humiliation will surely follow.

Nigel Hindle

Tytherington, Wiltshire

SIR – I watched Monday’s confidence motion debated in Westminster with sadness (report, July 19). The Prime Minister spoke with customary passion and humour.

It was a tour de force that ranged over the three turbulent years of his administration. His playful chiding of opposition leaders was then contrasted by their sheer nastiness in reply, led by Sir Keir Starmer. Could he not have tempered his insults and shown a little more dignity?

Less than a year ago, after Sir David Amess was killed, the public and all sides of the House of Commons called for kinder politics.

Whatever the faults of Boris Johnson, and he has many, he surely deserves a more courteous send-off from opposition MPS.

Alastair Graham

Bagshot, Surrey

SIR – In allowing Boris Johnson to remain as Prime Minister, the Conservative Party has shown two fingers to its members. As Mr Johnson plays top gun, sacks ministers, removes the whip from others and has parties at Chequers, life-long members of the party are disillusioned and dismayed.

Personally, it will give me great satisfaction to vote out a party that has destroyed the moral fabric of our country, led by a man who has used all of us for his own gain.

Mark Peaker

London W1

SIR – Do Tory MPS really know what they’re doing? They got all hot under the collar about Boris Johnson and decided they would kick out the very person that won most of them their seats in the first place. They then didn’t know what to do next.

The smart idea would have been to agree a leader in waiting, among themselves, before kicking Mr

Johnson out – but no. Now we have backstabbing among candidates before a replacement is found.

This infighting is doing nothing to enhance the image of the Conservative Party.

Neil Blake

Great Brickhill, Buckinghamshire

SIR – Is the Tory party the chicken that cut off its own head?

Peers M S Carter

Southfleet, Kent

SIR – What I have yet to hear from the various candidates for the leadership of the Conservative Party is: “In any case, the newly elected leader will have my complete and unconditional support.”

What we need in these troubled times is a team that will work together, not infighting and criticism.

Patrick Fossett

Cobham, Surrey

SIR – As the Conservative leadership candidates are whittled down, I am reminded of the onion at whose centre nothing was found after all the layers had been removed.

No wonder so many of us are weeping at the prospect of who will replace Boris Johnson.

John Pritchard

Ingatestone, Essex