So now we have it…The Top Ten…the cream of Britain’s political class…the solution to all the country’s ills. Really? This is the widest choice of candidates Tories have ever been presented with for the leadership (the previous record was five candidates), but it is also the shallowest.
The main problem, however, is the ‘selectorate’. 313 Tory MPs, terrified of a Corbyn victory in the face of the Brexit Party, are panicking and will vote for any ‘prophet’ who will save them from Farage, regardless of the longer-term consequences. Then there is the Tory membership; allegedly 160,000. Mostly older, right-wing and almost uniformly anti-EU voters, they have often in the past and will, now, vote on the basis of Europe, not talent or wider electoral appeal. Think Hague and Ian Duncan-Smith. They will probably deliver to the wider public a new Brexit Party in all but name, anchoring the perception of a move to the populist right for a generation.
And, with the exception of Rory Stewart, if we explore these candidates in more depth, you find that, ex Brexit, their core appeal is also to squander the hard-won gains from austerity. We are still running a deficit, there are real problems with social care and the delivery of local authority services generally, in infrastructure spending, particularly in the North. But billions are pledged elsewhere with the most ludicrous proposal coming from the front runner, Boris Johnson. Tax cuts for those earning over £50,000 (ex Scotland of course), spending the Brexit dividend before he has any idea how to access it.
And that takes us to Boris Johnson in more detail…What does it say about a candidate who is kept out of the limelight for fear of making a gaffe and ruining his chances of leadership? A man who is loose with the truth, flirts with the alt.right and has little attention to detail. Of course, he is socially liberal (he would have to be…) which doesn’t chime with many of his supporters, so he is staying quiet on this too. And he is charismatic. A rare quality in today’s Tories. But that is not enough. Being Prime Minister is serious, grinding business as many occupants not really up to it have found out and we certainly don’t need a Donald Trump Mark II. The best put down came from Max Hastings who, as editor, employed Johnson at The Telegraph. To paraphrase him, he thinks Johnson sees himself as a Winston Churchill figure when in reality he is more Steve Coogan.
On Brexit generally, the best question to wannabee leaders came from the Tory MP, Sam Gyimah, who didn’t make it to the final 10. He will vote for the person who has a plan B when the EU doesn’t re-open negotiations and there is no No-Deal majority in Parliament. We haven’t had a definitive answer from most candidates yet, least of all Johnson.
On his performance to date, the next leader should be Rory Stewart but the final battle will probably be between Jeremy Hunt and Boris Johnson with the latter the hot favourite. Unlike many of the candidates in their past, we will be forced to watch this unedifying contest without the benefits of chemical stimuli…
Inside Right Politics 
Just one point, Julian. You say the members will vote on Europe ‘think Hague or Ian Duncan Smith’, but Hague was elected by the MPs alone, before members had a say. Ken Clarke might well have beaten Ian Duncan Smith (and took 40% of the member vote anyway) if he had offered a more coherent position on how to have an agreed party line on the Euro. The other membership election was between Cameron and Davis – the former won by a convincing margin, largely on the basis of the ‘wider electoral appeal’ which you say the members are likely to discard. In short – things may have changed, but I would not assume that the membership is in thrall to the poulist right. I hope so anyway!
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