The Tory leadership is fast becoming Boris Johnson’s to lose, I say in The Sun this morning. He has more MPs backing him than any other candidate, and his campaign receives a further boost this morning with the former Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon endorsing him. In the words of one of those knows the Tory parliamentary party best, ‘the wind is blowing in one direction’.
There is increasing talk among senior figures in the party that if the former Foreign Secretary comes out on top in the parliamentary rounds, it would be best to skip the members part of the contest and make him Prime Minister straight away.
The argument goes that the polling shows that Johnson is the members’ choice, and so they wouldn’t mind him being coronated. Also, by ending the contest early, the new Prime Minister would have a chance to get cracking on Brexit. As one of those behind this idea points out, if you stick to the current schedule, then you’ll have the new PM ‘hitting up Europe in the first week of August when they are on the beach’.
But others are wary of the idea.
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