On Thursday evening, after five ballots in eight days among Conservative MPs, the 10 original would-be successors to Theresa May were finally reduced to two: Boris Johnson and, trailing a distant second, the foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt. The two will now face the Tory membership before one of them emerges next month in a postal ballot as the new party leader. For the first time, a prime minister of the UK will be chosen by party grassroots activists. This means the new leader will largely be the choice of middle-class white men over 55 in the south of England who support the death penalty, oppose income redistribution and back a no-deal Brexit. » | Editorial | Thursday, June 20, 2019
Friday, June 21, 2019
The Guardian View on the Tory Leadership Election: Things Fall Apart
On Thursday evening, after five ballots in eight days among Conservative MPs, the 10 original would-be successors to Theresa May were finally reduced to two: Boris Johnson and, trailing a distant second, the foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt. The two will now face the Tory membership before one of them emerges next month in a postal ballot as the new party leader. For the first time, a prime minister of the UK will be chosen by party grassroots activists. This means the new leader will largely be the choice of middle-class white men over 55 in the south of England who support the death penalty, oppose income redistribution and back a no-deal Brexit. » | Editorial | Thursday, June 20, 2019
