The prospect of Liz Truss becoming the United Kingdom’s third female prime minister is antagonising all the right people.
Almost the entire Remainer establishment – including state-sponsored leftist comedians, professors of European studies, AC Grayling, senior figures at the Times newspaper, Irish government insiders – is recoiling at the thought.
It is only partly as a result of this that I find myself thawing towards her – if not quite warming – and hoping she defeats Rishi Sunak when the votes of the wider Conservative membership are counted in early September.
This is a U-turn on my part. Anticipating this contest as a distinct possibility I wrote a somewhat prophetic piece for this site in December which concluded as follows: ‘If Tory MPs and grassroots members are asked to choose between their Chancellor and Foreign Secretary to take up the reins next year then he is their best bet by far.’
No cabinet minister has been more staunch than Truss about pursuing Brexit
Part of the case set out in that piece was that Truss had campaigned for Remain in the referendum, while Sunak had been a Leaver.
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