Tory Leadership Race

Theresa Goes, eventually.

May is leaving us with a whimper, and so is Theresa. Yesterday she told the grieving/jubilant nation (depends on whether you are Theresa or Boris) that she had failed. Give her her due, it has only taken 3 rejections by the House of Commons to realise what we all knew 2 years ago. Her “Brexit means Brexit” strategy should have been called “Brexit means exit, stage left”. Now the Tory Leadership race begins for real.

Theresay May has done what had seemed impossible, she made Gordon Brown look like an effective PM. The people that I feel real sorry for are the political hacks who will have to write new pieces rather than rehashing the same “TM to be kicked out this week” stories that have dominated the Sunday papers week after week for months. Prepare for weeks of articles peppered with leaks about the Tory Leadership hopefulls from un-named sources. The knives will be out, and how. Politics as a blood sport.

The runners and Riders

Reading the Tory blogs and you seem to have a field for the Tory Leadership that would be almost as big as that for the Grand National, with the prospect of even m ore fallers! The listy so far;

• Boris Johnson (Well known prat and serial lier)
• Esther McVey (Ex- Children’s BBC presenter and briefly “in charge” of Works and pensions)
• Jeremey Hunt (Re-named, appropriately by James Naughty. Also read about his disgraceful Hilsborough comments here!)
• Rory Stewart (Who? I mean, really, WHO?)
• Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health, the one that promoted a private company’s health app, while being the Health Minister. He really is dedicated to the NHS, honest)

Who else is saddling up to Join the Tory Leadership race?

• Dominic Raab (Secretary of State for Exiting the EU for about 3 months before it all became too much for the poor dear. Quit and run away rather than fight for what you believe in. At least May tried.)
• David Lidington (De-facto May’s number 2. Most interesting part of his political career? That he thought that it was OK to claim expenses for, amongst other things, dry cleaning, toothpaste, shower gel, body spray and vitamens. At least we paid to made him healthy and smell nice. I believe that his apology was something like “I accept that many people would see them as over-generous.” Such a fulsome apology)
• Michael Gove (Yes, the Govemeister is going to try again! Let’s hope that he has been forgiven for stabbing Boris in the back last time, and that he can do it again!)
• Penny Mordaunt (Always in the top 10 of MPs, at least for expenses in 2015. Beaten by 9 MPs who claimed for travel, like Penny, but then most of them were travelling to and from Scotland, she was travelling to and from Portsmouth North.)
• Andrea Leadsom (Another making another run at the top job. You will remember that last time she said that she would be a better PM because, unlike May, she had children. Oh yes, a fully paid up member of the supportive sister-hood. On the other hand she was an investment banker in a previous life, Say no more!

There are others, lots of them. But I am losing the will to live thinking about these shady chancers.

One Name is missing from the Tory Leadership Listings

What about Amber Rudd? I hear you ask. Well, she resigned from the cabinet this week and a couple of days later May steps down. Historically, those that cause the Tory PM of the day to fall on their sword are thanked by their colleauges but not supported in the resulting ballot. Did she really cause May to go or not? I can not see how, I think that it had much more to do with May’s misjudgement over her “new, improved” offer.

On the other hand she might be scared that people will remember her past record. Such as;

• Her part in the unlawful detention and deportation of asylum seekers.
• Overseeing a rise in violent crime (slash police numbers and crime goes up, who’d have thought?)
• Lieing to the House of Comons about knowing about targets for deprting members of the Windrush Generation.

One Dark Horse for the hustings?

Sir Graham Brady has resigned as chairman of the 1922 comittee. It would seem that he is readying a bid for the Tory Leadership. As he has been the chairman since 2010 he will know where all the skeletons are buried. This could get interesting!

Tory Leadership Odds

I think that these odds came from Bet365. I may be a cynic but perhaps their clientelle should do some research before they put any money on Farage and Corbyn……….

Boris Johnson 6/4
Dominic Raab 6/1
David Lidington 9/1
Jeremy Hunt 12/1 
Andrea Leadsom 12/1 
Michael Gove 14/1
Penny Mordaunt 20/1
Rory Stewart 22/1
Sajid Javid 22/1
Nigel Farage 25/1 
Jeremy Corbyn 33/1
Amber Rudd 80/1
Jacob Rees- Mogg 80/1

Tags: boris johnson, Politics, Theresa May, tory leadership