The case against all the Tory leadership candidates

The Tory leadership contenders have set out their pitches. Rishi Sunak is the sensible but boring choice. Liz Truss is the candidate who will cut taxes and get stuff done. Kemi Badenoch is the wildcard. Penny Mordaunt has vowed to restore the Tory ‘sense of self’. And Tom Tugendhat will up defence spending. But what about another option: none of the above. In this dismal election, there are plenty of reasons to think that might be the best choice of all.

Let’s start at the top. The word that best defines Rishi Sunak is ‘chutzpah’. The former chancellor packed his launch speech with fulsome praise for Boris Johnson, describing him as ‘one of the most remarkable people I have ever met’. Rishi insisted he would ‘have no part in a rewriting of history that seeks to demonise Boris, exaggerate his faults, or deny his efforts’. This is a bit like Brutus deciding that he should be the one to give Mark Antony’s ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen’ speech, and then delivering it while still holding the knife.