Rishi’s mad dash: can he catch up with Truss?

Just a couple of weeks ago, Rishi Sunak was the clear bookies’ favourite in the Tory leadership contest. He had the largest parliamentary support and was set to top every round of MPs’ voting. He had 20,000 volunteers, a well-organised team, a slick launch – and (he thought) all of August to convince party members that he was the real deal. His strength, his supporters argued, was a firmer grasp of policy and better verbal dexterity than his opponents. So the final format – a dozen head-to-head debates – would give him time to win.

Then, disaster. The Tories became paranoid that the unions could sabotage the process with a Royal Mail strike, so Conservative campaign headquarters announced they would send out the voting papers almost as soon as the final two had been selected. They did delay this a little after an outcry from the campaign teams, but only by a week.