Andrea Leadsom’s decision to drop out of the leadership race — and by default make Theresa May the party’s new leader — has been met with a collective sigh of relief by the majority of Conservative MPs. However, for the same reason that many were worried by Leadsom’s appeal to grassroots Tories, they ought too to be worried about the opportunity her departure presents to their opponents.
In the course of the — short-lived — leadership contest, Leadsom established herself as the Brexit purist, winning nominations from MPs on the right of the party. She also won the backing of leading figures in Ukip with both Arron Banks’s Leave.EU and Nigel Farage endorsing her. Over the weekend, Banks even confessed that Leadsom as Tory leader could spell the end for Ukip. He predicted that supporters would ‘come back to the Conservatives’.
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