Andrea Leadsom’s scratchy job interview on the Marr show

Is Andrea Leadsom a serious contender to become Prime Minister? A few days ago, she was almost about to sign up to Team Boris, and even held talks with Team Crabb & Javid. Which made sense: she has been in parliament for just six years, and has been a junior minister for an even shorter time. But to those Tories unable to forgive Michael Gove for knifing Boris, she is the only viable Brexit candidate. Until Leadson turned up on the Brexit debates, she was virtually unknown. Now, we’re being asked to assess her as a Prime Minister. Her appearance on the Marr show today was a chance to do that: it as a job interview, on live TV.

He started by quoting extracts from a speech that she gave to the Hansard Society just three years ago, saying that Brexit would be a “disaster for our economy and would lead to a decade of economic and political uncertainty at a time when the tectonic plates are moving”.