Rory Stewart made the biggest gains in the second ballot of the Tory leadership contest. Not only did he get over the 33 votes needed to stay in the race, but he also put on more votes than any other candidate—going from 19 to 37.
But with Dominic Raab knocked out, the votes that are most clearly up for grabs are, generally, those of hard-line Brexiteers. It is hard to imagine many, if any, of Raab’s 30 supporters moving to Stewart. That means that if Stewart is to keep up his momentum he is going to have to take votes from the other Cabinet candidates—in particular, Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove.
Tonight’s TV debate will now be more dramatic than expected. But as I said yesterday, there is a danger for Rory Stewart in being seen to go in too hard on Boris Johnson.
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