Boris’s campaign is a triumph

Forget what you’ve been told about the Conservative leadership campaign. The Boris campaign’s weekend meltdown has not lost him the election. And Jeremy Hunt has not suddenly leapt into the lead. This is still Boris’s election to lose and the odds are that he will almost certainly triumph.

The reason is simple. Boris is following the tried-and-tested playbook of successful campaigns the world over. He is speaking plainly and to the right people. And he has a simple message that he repeats often, reassuring party members that he is the man to trust on the issue that they care about: Brexit.

In recent weeks, Boris’s campaign has changed dramatically. But this was a tactical shift and wasn’t a sudden panic. At the beginning of the leadership election, when thirteen MPs announced they were running – and ten got nominated – there were two obvious choices for MPs to make: speak to the national press to build a national profile, or talk to MPs.

Almost exclusively, Boris chose the latter, his electorate in that first round.