Each behaves as if they are vying to be PM when the reality is years in opposition, says Guardian columnist Rafael Behr
Each behaves as if they are vying to be PM when the reality is years in opposition. And none has truly understood the party’s plight
Flapping incoherently in the middle of the field is James Cleverly. He says it was unrealistic of Rishi Sunak to claim he could “stop the boats”. He also pledges to revive the Rwanda deportation scheme on which the boat-stopping boast was predicated This is a familiar trap for beaten parties. The new leader is nominated from a shrunken pool of MPs and approved by a ballot of hardcore believers. The whole process militates against original thinking or confronting the membership with hard truths.
That makes it easy for Tories to dream of a swift return to power by natural operation of political gravity. And there lies the second trap. The vacancy on offer in Birmingham this week is for a leader of the opposition, a thankless job at which most people fail after a few years spent lurching between crisis and irrelevance. Yet in Birmingham the candidates pose as potential prime ministers because that is the established idiom of the race.
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