If the chaos of recent weeks in British politics has clarified anything, it’s the almost complete schism between Conservative MPs and the party’s members. That Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have made it to the final round of the Tory leadership contest, ahead of their more popular rivals, paints the Conservatives as a party that no longer wishes nor deserves to win. Not since a close ally of David Cameron’s described Tory activists in 2013 as ‘mad, swivel-eyed loons’ has contempt for the party’s grass-roots membership – or rather, complete indifference to their wishes – been so marked.
Were there a credible opposition, this would not matter so much. Yet one has the uncomfortable feeling of a group of entrusted Tory politicians simply abandoning us to Starmer’s Britain – a five-year adenoidal homily – while they jockey for position and play tribal games of their own.
Take, for example, the party’s decision to eliminate Penny Mordaunt and Kemi Badenoch from the leadership ballot this week.
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