THE GUARDIAN: By rejecting James Cleverly, MPs spurned the chance to renew their party. Their chosen path is further right, a blow for all who want an effective opposition
So the final Tory run-off, whose result will be announced on 2 November, will be between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick. The one who thinks there’s too much maternity pay and that 10% of civil servants should be in prison, versus the one who alleges that UK special forces are killing suspects rather than arresting them and who promises to withdraw from the European human rights system as a priority.
There are no two ways about reading the result of the fourth and final round of voting by the 121 surviving Conservative MPs at Westminster today. It marks a triumph for the Tory right and another existential crisis moment for a party that was battered into a record election defeat in July. With this vote, Tory MPs have bought their party a one-way ticket to another political planet. » | Martin Kettle | Wednesday, October 9, 2024
The Conservatives did themselves in with that ridiculous Brexit referendum. My regular visitors will know that I have said over and over and over again that the Conservatives will go the way of the dodo and the Whigs before them. I firmly believe that this leadership race has proved me right. The four contenders were/are duds: not of them had/has good policies and not one of them had/has charisma.
Once upon a time, the Conservative Party was synonymous with class, intellectual superiority, character, and at least a modicum of style. Those days are well and truly over. The choice of leaders on offer has been nothing other than Hobson's choice. The Party is dead. Just as I stated — as dead as the dodo. Short of a miracle that could breathe life back into the Party, the party for the Tory Party is well and truly over. R.I.P. – © Mark Alexander
