Whatever side they’re on, most Tory MPs now think the leadership contest is getting a bit much. They’re worried about the attacks across camps – though of course those who have declared for a candidate tend to think it’s their rivals who are doing the worst mudslinging.
Labour’s attack unit need scarcely lift a finger as the lines for future campaign leaflets and PMQs are writing themselves
One MP who has gone public with his complaints is Justin Tomlinson, who resigned as deputy chairman of the party so he could back Kemi Badenoch. His messages warning colleagues about the damage that blue-on-blue attacks were doing to the party leaked this morning, and when I spoke to him this afternoon, he explained he was worried that the constant sniping meant the party was at real risk.
‘At the end of this we do still need our party to exist, we are one team,’ he explains.
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