What happens when the “most duplicitous and lying electorate you’ve ever met” holds an internal contest through breathless secret covered votes by the media with the fate of the country at stake?
This description of those currently deciding who could be the next prime minister, from former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, explains in some way why there has been a torrent of blue-on-blue attacks, “dark arts” and long-time betrayals. -He was loyal for the last week.
After MPs finally managed to oust the prime minister, the relief of being able to select a new leader was only momentary before internal fights began again.
“In terms of attacks on candidates, it will be a long, hot summer,” predicted Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries after an already blunt week of mud.
Another cabinet minister reflected: “In the beginning, it was a matter of choosing a candidate based on his vision, high ideals and philosophy. Over the weekend, that will change as people begin to unite around those who want to prevent them from becoming PMs. “
With the leadership elections scheduled to conclude on September 5, only a few more days will take place behind closed doors on the fringes of Parliament. It will then spread across the country, as the two remaining finalists fight for the support of Conservative members.
The trip so far has been dominated by briefing and counter-reporting, as the favorites keep one eye on trying to extract fans from those left behind and another on eliminating those who support their closest rivals.
Candidates try to keep civilian things afloat, but allies and foreigners are free to act more independently, usually under the guise of anonymity.
Rishi Sunak has won the majority of parliamentary support, but has also attracted significant levels of vitriol. A figure inside a rival camp called him a “quisling” because they believed a senior member of the former chancellor’s camp had been spreading lies about his candidate.
Rishi Sunak criticized after images of him appeared saying “he has no working class friends”: video
Dorries, who supports Liz Truss, accused Sunak’s team of “dark arts” for allegedly trying to design with him an easy candidate to beat the last two with him, and suggested that Dominic Cummings support him.
A government source said: “For six months, we had to make these huge decisions about the cost of living and all the time Rishi had this filter in his head thinking about how they will play in terms of their own leadership prospects; it’s fucking shocking. ”
Sunak supporters have tried to make a brave face, a joke that would follow Michelle Obama’s retort against Donald Trump’s attacks: “When they come down, we go high.”
Mark Spencer, the leader of the Commons and one of four former whips in chief who support Sunak, said this week that he was doing so in part because “there are no skeletons in this closet.”
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Such is the effort to ensure that Sunak remains impeccable that staunch supporters took it upon themselves to organize the escort in parliament. Lawmakers set up a WhatsApp group called “the walkers” to coordinate the meeting and transportation of the former chancellor between events, to prevent his colleagues and journalists from hooking him.
Penny Mordaunt, in particular, who surprised many MPs by beating Liz Truss in the first and second rounds of voting, and leading a poll of YouGov party members, has been the victim of a particularly vicious briefing.
Former Brexit minister David Frost, a supporter of Truss, claimed Mordaunt had been a dull MP and had asked Johnson to move her; Suella Braverman wasted no time in abandoning her career in attacking Mordaunt for women’s rights.
Penny Mordaunt at the launch of her campaign. Photography: Stefan Rousseau / PA
“The responsible minister, I’m afraid, didn’t advocate for women,” Braverman said, discussing the drafting of a bill on maternity rights for ministers last year, and said Mordaunt had not wanted the words “mother” or “wife.” ”To be included. Braverman later threw his weight behind Truss, and is expected to carry many of his followers with her.
When asked about the briefing against her on Sky News on Friday, Mordaunt described it as “black operations,” saying, “Obviously people are trying to keep me from entering the final because they don’t want to run against me.” She added: “In my campaign you will see that I am not participating in any of this.”
In response to Frost’s high insistence that he would not serve in a Mordaunt government, fund MP Simon Hoare wrote on Twitter: “Who the hell is an unelected minister and shouldn’t tell any MP what to do? “For some unknown reason, David Frost perpetually thinks we’re giving a flying xxxx what he thinks. We don’t and we won’t.”
Suella Braverman criticizes Penny Mordaunt for “not defending women” – video
It may not rival the Michael Gove drama that stabbed Johnson in the back in 2016, but some loyalties have already been put aside when the prime minister’s term in office comes to an end.
Conor Burns, a Northern Ireland Office minister and such a staunch supporter that Johnson had been “ambushed with a cake”, was rejected for promotion last week to the highest cabinet post when he be vacant by Brandon Lewis.
Mordaunt strongly supported Jeremy Hunt’s 2019 campaign, but refused to endorse his offer and instead paddled behind Sunak.
Sajid Javid was rejected by his former member, Treasury Secretary John Glen, who supports Sunak, while Treasury Secretary-General Simon Clarke supports Truss.
A MP who supported Javid in the previous leadership race said that after failing to get a seat in the first ballot, after having gathered only 12 of the 20 necessary supporters, Javid approached them with tears in his eyes. eyes and begged to find out why they hadn’t. done so again.
One of the defining elements of these contests is how they make all interested MPs a sudden devotee of game theory, plotting multiple narratives in which the decline of a rival could help their chosen favorite, a hobby that comes to a crescendo in the hallway outside the committee. room where deputies voted.
In the second round, on Thursday at lunchtime, a Truss ally feverishly presented to reporters waiting for the idea that Braverman and Kemi Badenoch were convicted and that they should therefore “recognize reality” and put the his part behind Truss, as a unified candidate for the Conservatives. right.
Liz Truss launches its leadership campaign. Photography: Toby Melville / Reuters
Less than a minute later, Braverman, as always overshadowed by his campaign leader Steve Baker, was busy insisting to the same journalists that he was destined for the next round and therefore a place in the upcoming televised debates. Once viewers had a chance to see first-hand Braverman’s arguments, “all bets are off,” Baker predicted. Hours later, the attorney general was removed from the race, leaving a final five.
When attention turns to the final stages of the parliamentary phase of leadership elections, parliamentarians fear a brutal weekend. Sources from the 1922 Committee, which set the rules for the short contest, admitted it had been deliberately designed to take place from Wednesday to Wednesday, allowing Sunday newspapers to interrogate and “eliminate” awkward political positions and past behaviors. Some camps are so worried about the dirt that rivals are handing them out that several are said to have hired media lawyers.
Close-watched television debates will also allow lesser-known candidates, such as Mordaunt, Badenoch and Tom Tugendhat, to be put into practice, and each field suggests that its rivals are likely to fight in the spotlight.
The bet will only increase when the candidates are reduced to two. “There will be some grenades that will be saved for August,” one MP said. “You can’t use all your ammunition with people only in the playoffs.”
Despite the humiliating nature of Johnson’s downfall, he is said to be still desperate to regain the popularity he achieved during the intoxicating peaks of the 2019 general election campaign.
A source number 10 suggested he believed he could “make a Churchill” and get back into it, re-entering if the new Conservative leader loses the next election and retires. Another Johnson loyalist said he was “still very angry” and would probably hit Sunak if he emerged as the next leader.
But the privilege committee’s call for a wealth of evidence on Friday, as it begins its investigation into Partygate, was a reminder that he and the Conservative Party in general will be haunted by the legacy of his chaotic prime minister for a time. .