What Hunt's no deal warning reveals about the Tory leadership contest

The Conservative leadership contest doesn’t officially commence until June but that hasn’t stopped the various contenders parading their credentials. With ten candidates now declared, the expectation is that this number will rise to at least fifteen before the nomination period starts. Jeremy Hunt is seen as one of the favourites and has today set the news agenda with an article for the Telegraph in which he suggests pursuing a no deal Brexit amounts to ‘political suicide’ – as it would mean going into a general election before Brexit had been delivered (as – he says – Parliament would block it):

‘Attacked by the Brexit Party on the Right and the Liberal Democrats on the Left, we will face extinction. Any candidate for prime minister whose strategy leads inexorably to a general election is offering a prospectus for disaster.

Trying to deliver no deal through a general election is not a solution. It is political suicide, that would delight Nigel Farage and probably put Jeremy Corbyn in No 10 by Christmas.’