Conservative party

Monday

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Eagle abandoned by hacks at leadership launch

Today the Eagle has landed. After touring television studios yesterday with talk that she would run to be the next Labour leader, Angela Eagle officially launched her campaign this morning. Alas there was a problem. As the launch neared its end, Andrea Leadsom managed to upstage her by putting on a rival press conference to announce that she was dropping out of the Tory leadership race. As hacks raced across Westminster to make it to Leadsom’s conference, the Labour leadership hopeful was left red-faced as she tried to take questions from the BBC and then ITV’s Robert Peston only to learn that they weren’t there. Given that Mr S understands that Eagle had to call

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can Theresa May nurse the Tories back to health?

It might prove easier for the Tories’ new leader Theresa May to reunite the party post referendum than expected. First, many Tory MPs have been taken aback by the brutality of the past few weeks. They know how close the party is to entering into a post-Maastricht cycle of political violence and there appears to be a desire to pull back from the brink. Second, both sides have had their pound of flesh. The Leavers have seen David Cameron resign and George Osborne see his leadership hopes dashed; the Remainers have seen Boris Johnson and Michael Gove brought low by the leadership contest. May’s biggest challenge will, obviously, be to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

And then there was one… Theresa May’s team prepare for government

Chris Grayling has given this very brief statement on behalf of Theresa May in the past few minutes: ‘Can I start by thanking on behalf of Theresa May and on behalf of everyone involved in Theresa’s campaign team by thanking and paying a warm tribute to Andrea Leadsom. Her actions this morning have shown what a principled and decent politician she is and how willing she is to put the interests of the country before her own. She is a true public servant. Theresa is currently on her way back to London from Birmingham and she will make a statement later today. But on her behalf I’d just like to

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Graham Brady rules out re-opening the Tory leadership contest

Following Andrea Leadsom’s announcement that she is bowing out of the leadership race, Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, has confirmed that Theresa May is now the only remaining candidate. While he refused to confirm that she was now the country’s Prime Minister, he ruled out re-opening the contest, which means it is almost certain that May has got the top job. Gove has also voiced his support: Andrea Leadsom spoke with great dignity and courage today. I wish her every success in the future. We should now move as quickly as possible to ensure Theresa May can take over as leader. She has my full support as our next prime

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The martyrdom of St Andrea

He may have died in the seventeenth century but in his Mysterie of Rhetoric Unvail’d  of 1657 John Smith showed he understood how sneaks such as Andrea Leadsom operate.  Defining the rhetorical device of ‘apophasis’, Smith described it as A kind of irony, whereby we deny that we say or doe that which we especially say or doe Leadsom proved herself the queen of denying what she says and does: the apotheosis of apophasis. She made a political issue of the childlessness of Theresa May, a loss we know is a matter of sorrow to the Home Secretary and her husband, as it is to many couples, while denying that

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Andrea Leadsom drops out of leadership race

In what must be the shortest-lived leadership campaign in the history of the Conservative Party, Andrea Leadsom has just announced that she’s dropping out. She said in her resignation statement that there was not “sufficient support” from her colleagues – perhaps a nod to how many of them said that they would quit the party if she won. She said she wants “the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister”. And that woman, she said, must be Theresa May. In the four days since the formal leadership race began, it became painfully obvious that Ms Leadsom was simply unfit for the job. She messed up an interview with The Times, saying she didn’t want to attack

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Andrea Leadsom: Theresa May is ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit

Andrea Leadsom has withdrawn from the Tory leadership race, saying ‘the best interests of our country are best served by the immediate appointment of a strong and well-supported Prime Minister’ and that she did not have sufficient support to lead a strong and stable government. She said Theresa May was ‘ideally placed’ to implement Brexit and that she would withdraw immediately so that the new Prime Minister could be appointed immediately. Leadsom did not mention the torrid weekend that she has had, in which she sustained heavy criticism for her comments about having children giving her a ‘direct stake’. But even her supporters had come away from the past few

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Andrea Leadsom gives an apology of sorts. But is it too late?

Andrea Leadsom initially tried to go on the attack following the row over her motherhood comments sparked by an article in the Times on Saturday. Today, the Tory leadership candidate appears to be attempting a different technique to put out this fire for good. At first, she was ‘disgusted’ by the presentation of the piece which suggested she was a better choice for PM than Theresa May because she had children. Today, she had this to say: ‘I’ve already said to Theresa how very sorry I am for any hurt that I have caused and how that article said completely the opposite of what I said and believe.’ The problem

Saturday

Melanie McDonagh

The reason Theresa May is the better candidate has nothing to do with motherhood

Well! It hasn’t taken long for the commentariat to get over their excitement at the prospect of another female prime minster, has it? Can you imagine what the Guardian would be making of it were the contest between Angela and Maria Eagle, Venus and Serena Williams-style (or even, David and Ed Miliband-style)? It’d be triumph for feminism, a belated victory for the kind of positive discrimination gender politics which has proved so terrifically successful in the Labour party. Well, it turns out that it’s not just a woman that feminists wants, it’s a particular kind of woman. Their kind of woman. No others need pretend to the gender. The knives,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May must sound optimistic about Brexit

Theresa May’s biggest weakness in the Tory leadership race is that she backed Remain while most Tory members went Leave. But, as I say in The Sun this morning, if she can sound confident and optimistic about Brexit, then she will win and become Britain’s next Prime Minister. May needs to make clear that now the referendum result is in, she’s sees Brexit as an opportunity to be seized, not as a risk to be managed. She can’t afford to cede optimism on this to Andrea Leadsom. I understand that her Leave-voting supporters—Liam Fox, Priti Patel, David Davis and her campaign chair Chris Grayling—will all be out and about this

Friday

James Forsyth

It will be a closer race than expected between May and Leadsom

Most Tory MPs are back in their constituencies today, and several of those that I have spoken to are now predicting a closer race between May and Leadsom than Westminster expected. One May supporting MP tells me that the councillors they have spoken to are intrigued by Leadsom, a fresh face they want to hear more about. There’s also a view among many members, I’m told, that MPs wouldn’t have sent Leadsom through to the final two if she wasn’t qualified to be Prime Minister. For the next few weeks, I intend to take all polling of Tory members on this race with a pinch of salt. Why? Because Leadsom

Thursday

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 7 July 2016

Home Conservative MPs set about finding two candidates for the party leadership to be put to party members as rival choices. Theresa May proved the frontrunner, gaining 165 votes in the first round, with Liam Fox least fancied, being eliminated in the first round with 16 votes, and Stephen Crabb gaining 34 and throwing in the towel. Boris Johnson, having been forced out of the contest by the sudden entry of his presumed supporter Michael Gove (who attracted 48 votes in the first round), gave his backing to the next most popular woman candidate among MPs, Andrea Leadsom, who polled 66. Mrs May said that the position of British citizens

The Spectator

Why the Tories should send May and Gove to the country

As a radical paper, The Spectator has always been an admirer of Michael Gove, particularly his education reforms. He was, perhaps, a little too radical when abandoning Boris Johnson at the eleventh hour last week – but let it not be said that he lacks the steel needed to become Prime Minister. Andrea Leadsom was impressive during the referendum campaign and might be a triumph as Prime Minister. But there is only one battle-tested Brexiteer in this contest – and he is Michael Gove. Tory MPs will today choose which two candidates they will ask the membership to choose between. The glitch in the voting system means they get to choose

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

‘I had to step up’

On the way to interview Michael Gove, we meet a government minister, an Old Etonian, who suggests we ask him, ‘How can anyone trust you ever again?’ Just a fortnight ago, proposing such a question would have been unthinkable: the Justice Secretary had a reputation for being one of the most consistent, decent and honourable men in the cabinet. When Gove agreed to back Boris Johnson’s leadership bid, the pair seemed a dream team. But on the morning of their campaign launch, Gove announced that Johnson was unfit for the job, so he’d stand himself instead. Then, he was knocked out by Conservative MPs who were still recovering from the drama.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

A new workers’ party

We are living through the most intense political drama in modern British history. The vote to leave the European Union is the greatest act of defiance against the establishment since the coming of universal suffrage. It has triggered leadership challenges crises in the three most popular political parties: Labour, the Conservatives and Ukip. As Tony Blair might have put it, the kaleidoscope has been shaken and the pieces are in flux. We’re midway through a very British revolution. As in other revolutions, a seismic event has caused a vacuum. It turns out that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were telling the truth about not using the referendum campaign to further

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Forget the Grand Mess, here’s the fun stuff

There’s something a little-dispiriting about waking up one morning to find that our elected politicians are even more psychopathic, deranged and-disloyal than one had always suspected. I don’t just mean Gove and his cackling, somewhat ambitious missus. Charming though Michael undoubtedly is, and agreeably owlish in-public, I have imagined him in-darker moments standing in a blood-splattered hallway with a kitchen knife in his hand muttering over and over: ‘I did it for you, Mummy, I did it for you.’ Somehow I always thought that was in there, with Michael. No, the other lot as well, Labour; as one embittered clown after another traipsed into-Forrest Gump’s office and pretended to feel sad

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Theresa May love bombs Tory MPs

The final parliamentary hustings of the Tory leadership contest has now taken place. With Theresa May assured of a place in the final two, the real interest was in whether Andrea Leadsom or Michael Gove could extract more from the occasion. Leadsom was first up, and I understand gave a better performance than she had on Monday night. She joked at the end of her speech, ‘I’m a quick learner—note I didn’t use the expression baby’s brains once’. But concerns were raised by her saying that she wouldn’t publish her tax return now but would let Tory MPs come and look at it if they wanted to.  Her answer that

Tuesday

Simon Hart

How the rural vote could decide the Conservative leadership race

As I passed the Momentum rally in Parliament Square last week, I was reminded of the last time there was such a packed demonstration on Parliament’s doorstep. There might not be a huge crossover between Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters and Countryside Alliance members, but both groups seem equally passionate.  Huge numbers of rural people protested against the last Labour government for a whole host of reasons, triggered by the bill to ban hunting. The largest demonstration brought over 400,000 people to London and our opponents had no response other than to poll the marchers, find that over 80% of them supported the Conservatives and argue that their protest could therefore be

Tom Goodenough Tom Goodenough

Stephen Crabb sets out nervy Tory leadership pitch ahead of today’s vote

Stephen Crabb is one of the least experienced candidates in this Tory leadership contest and that was on show during his interview on the Today programme just now. To his credit, Crabb – unlike Theresa May – has made it clear that he doesn’t want EU citizens living in the UK to be ‘negotiating chips’ in any negotiation. He also comes across as likeable in his answers about the importance of staying civilised during Brexit negotiations. But whilst it’s patently obvious that Crabb is deeply principled it’s hard not to ignore the simple fact that he sounds nervous. This is sure to stand against him when he’s pitted against some

Rob Wilson

Why I’m backing Theresa May

The EU Referendum has served to emphasise the huge divisions which exist across our country. One of the most prominent and significant of these divisions is the disparity between those who are seemingly economically comfortable and those who struggle on a daily basis. There are some who characterise these struggles as a natural conclusion of the austerity measures pursued by Coalition and majority Conservative Governments. If only it were that simple. The EU Referendum brought to the surface decades of growing anguish from sections of the country’s working people: wages that never seem to rise coupled with increased pressure on local public services – a double whammy of discontent. This