So still all to play for but Penny Mordaunt is the one to beat and presents the trickiest challenge for Keir Starmer.
Jeremy Hunt (18 votes) and Sajid Javid (eliminated earlier) have paid the price for dullness. Nadim Zahawi (25 votes) has paid the price for missteps in becoming Chancellor and then calling for Johnson to stand down. His tax arrangements also look curious, and the Tories don’t want to go there. They have all gone. You need to get 30 votes to reach tomorrow’s next round of voting.
All change at the top…
On the Right of a Party which has already drifted further to the right, Truss (50 votes) did less well than expected and it is more difficult today to see her in the last two to be voted on by the membership. Incredibly the controversial Suella Braverman (32 votes) is still just in the race, but her time must be up.
On the Left, Tom Tugendhat (37 votes) did respectably but his time looks to be up too. He deserves a key post in the next Cabinet.
Kemi Badenoch (40 votes) performed strongly. What she represents is uncertain, but her time will come again.
That leaves Rishi Sunak (88 votes). He leads but not by enough. Would voters warm to a rich, avowed Thatcherite after years of austerity and a cost-of-living crisis? Also, with tax issues. Umm… I think he would be Starmer’s choice…He also has many enemies in the Johnson camp.
So, today, it seems like Sunak versus Mordaunt, incredibly with the momentum behind Mordaunt. Read this quickly. It could all change tomorrow and this snap analysis only has a shelf life of 24 hours!
Inside Right Politics 