The fall of IDS

Tory MPs have decided to get rid of their leader in what are, on the face of it, surprising circumstances. The party is ahead in the polls by as much as 5 per cent. The recent Blackpool conference generated a host of new policies on health, education and welfare, most of which attracted favourable notices even from the BBC. At the most recent test of national electoral opinion, the 1 May council elections, Iain Duncan Smith’s Tories romped to victory and picked up 3,000 seats. There must have been some powerful incentive that drove Tory MPs to unseat a man elected, never let it be forgotten, by 61 per cent of the party membership. That incentive was fear.

It is of course true that for many weeks the plot against the leader was hyped up, and the number of plotters was exaggerated by the trompe l’oeil of the media. There has been more than a touch of Wenlock Jakes about recent events.