So the Conservative party is not going to try to become ‘more normal’ in the eyes of establishment centrists after all, but will instead chart a course towards becoming more conservative. After the astonishing elimination of James Cleverly from the Tory leadership contest this afternoon, Tory grassroots members are to be presented with a right-of-centre head-to-head between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick.
Badenoch will be favourite. But Jenrick could easily win off the back of his commitments on immigration policy and leaving the European Convention on Human Rights and its supervisory court.
The result of this round of the contest is not what Reform leader Nigel Farage would have wanted
How Cleverly went from a poll-topping 39 votes yesterday to just 37 today, despite the votes of 20 supporters of his eliminated fellow centrist Tom Tugendhat being newly up for grabs, is anyone’s guess. Perhaps his role in the Chagos Islands debacle finally caught up with him.
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