At a summer cup party Thursday night, the leadership contest was in full swing. Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor, and Nadhim Zahawi, the man who succeeded him, toured the garden with his aides and spoke with advisers and journalists.
Michael Gove, fresh from his overnight defenestration by Boris Johnson, was especially baffled at the idea that his departure had accelerated, for the second time, the disappearance of his longtime rival.
While Sunak and Zahawi were cheerful as they walked around, around them the knives were out. Sunak, already seen as one of the favorites, was the subject of a vicious information war, mocked by rivals as a socialist and “the candidate of the rest”, although he voted in favor of Brexit.
While touring Spectator