The race to be the next prime minister is formally under way
is a machine for winning and holding power. It has a remarkable capacity for reinvention, changing before change is forced upon it at the ballot box. Boris Johnson’s successor will be the party’s fourth leader, and Britain’s fourth prime minister, since it entered government in 2010. Before 2024 is out, they will be pursuing an unprecedented fifth general election victory.
Now all candidates boast of their integrity, seriousness and grip; none seeks to be his heir. Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor who leads among bookmakers, promises a new age of honesty and an end to “comforting fairy tales”. Kemi Badenoch, an insurgent from the right of the party, declares that voters are “exhausted by platitudes and empty rhetoric”. Penny Mordaunt, a former defence secretary, asks colleagues to pick a leader “because you trust their motives”.
Some of Mr Johnson’s most radical policies will survive him. In his final months in office, the government agreed a deal to. Ms Truss prepared legislation that would allow Britain unilaterally to rewrite the bit of the EU withdrawal treaty that bears on Northern Ireland. Such policies were deeply divisive within the party, regarded by much of its liberal wing as an abrogation of Britain’s obligations.
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