Do Tory MPs still represent their members?

As the Tory party leadership race enters its next stage this weekend, one thing is becoming very clear: the two candidates that MPs will select for party members to vote on may not be the people that, if it was up to them, the grassroots members would pick themselves.

The yawning gulf between Westminster and Tory foot soldiers is nothing new. Ever since her cabinet overthrew Margaret Thatcher, and still more so since David Cameron imposed his A list of diverse and celebrity candidates on local associations – many of them not even nominal conservatives – the gap between central office and ordinary Tories has grown ever wider.

Take the great Brexit debate, the most divisive issue to rend the party (and nation) in recent years. Surveys show that some 75 per cent of the estimated 200,000 Tory party members backed Brexit, against roughly 25 per cent who are or were Remainers.