The problem with Mordaunt’s trans conversion

Penny Mordaunt’s entry into the Tory leadership race was widely predicted and she has now become the first to throw her hat into the bin fire. I’m totally impartial in this contest. I think any Tory MP would be just as hopeless as the next. But there’s a point worth underscoring: if Mordaunt were to win, she would be the third liberal in a row to lead the Conservative party.

Now, when I say ‘liberal’, I mean liberal in a Tory context. Boris Johnson, the long-time social liberal, immigration liberal and, until 2016, pro-EU liberal, convinced the right to hoist him as its standard bearer when the time came to replace Theresa May. He won and proceeded to largely dodge the culture wars, oversee a marked increase in both legal and illegal immigration, and cut a deal that favoured Brussels’ interests over those of the UK in Northern Ireland.

Then his party dropped him, much to the chagrin of right-wingers who, having been kicked in the face by Boris, were furious to be deprived of the prime ministerial loafer.