Is Robert Jenrick fit to lead the Tories?

As the Conservative leadership contest gets underway, the various candidates are busy talking up their differences. But most of the candidates – from Kemi Badenoch to Robert Jenrick – hold one thing in common: they realise that the Tory party needs to change if it is to recover from its electoral wipeout. A key part of its catastrophic defeat was a fundamental failure of effectiveness and probity in government. But the party is already in danger of making the same mistake in its choice of next leader.

We all know that trust in politics and politicians has collapsed. Polling shows it at an historic and alarmingly low level: a survey for Ipsos at the end of last year revealed that only nine per cent of voters trusted politicians to tell the truth, which fell to an even more terrifying three per cent among the population of London.