So who will accept the poisoned chalice?

I think the people who should be asked are the disaffected previous tory voters in particular.
But cant see that happening.

I presume tory MPs will move fast as they will all break up soon for their hols and want things in place for the autumn conferences?

Personally I think a leader of a Party should be able to cope with anything.
Doesnt seem to be the case nowadays. Sadly.

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m not bothered about the economic literacy of those who voted for Reform HPQ as I am not one of them nor do I know any of them. However, Farage will I think be very useful in keeping uncontrolled immigration at the forefront of the issues faced by Labour. It’s not something to be swept under the carpet while they deal with more palatable issues.

Yes. I loathe Farage, and would never vote Reform, but uncontrolled immigration will continue to be a huge issue for many people - as long as we still don’t have anything like enough reasonable, affordable housing for all the people - native and otherwise - already here.

Putting so many new arrivals in hotels costs billions.

Well the Rwanda scheme has already been scrapped and that complete waste of money can be spent on processing the terrible backlog of applications, that will relieve the pressure on the hotels for a start.

RosiesMaw

maddyone

Smileless2012

I agree that would be the wise thing to do Siope but it's highly unlikely.

KS is being compared to Tony Blair!!! He doesn't have anything like the charisma.

Keir Starmer has the charisma of a wet lettuce. Mind you, Sunak was much the same.

I don’t think charisma is what we need. That has been the problem, this “presidential” approach to choosing a leader.
Blair had charisma, Macron has charisma, Trudeau has charisma, Boris (love or loathe) had charisma-
what we need is competence, strength, respect, honesty a sense of duty and service

Thanks - this is1 exactly what we need and what Starmer has demonstrated.

I rather hope that any Conservative Party supporters on here who aren’t actually part members will join up and use their vote to enable the party to choose a good, decent leader and not one on the far right of the party. For the sake of British politics.

As long as its not another Theresa May or Liz Truss

Yes - it is a big ask if someone hasn't joined a political party I admit, but it's more effective than sniping on the sidelines.

When we think of the tiny numbers of people in the country who actually "chose" Truss - which had a massive impact, it could be a good move.

Not a move that I will be making.

Witzend

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m not bothered about the economic literacy of those who voted for Reform HPQ as I am not one of them nor do I know any of them. However, Farage will I think be very useful in keeping uncontrolled immigration at the forefront of the issues faced by Labour. It’s not something to be swept under the carpet while they deal with more palatable issues.

Yes. I loathe Farage, and would never vote Reform, but uncontrolled immigration will continue to be a huge issue for many people - as long as we still don’t have anything like enough reasonable, affordable housing for all the people - native and otherwise - already here.

Putting so many new arrivals in hotels costs billions.

We do not have uncontrolled immigration in this country. In 2023, just under 790,000 immigrants arrived in this country legally, and approximately 40,000 illegally www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration/bulletins/longterminternationalmigrationprovisional/latest
lordslibrary.parliament.uk/illegal-migration-dealing-with-inadmissible-asylum-applications/

In other words, illegal immigration stands at less than 5% of total immigration. Roughly half a million of these visas go to students, who are self financing and the vast majority of whom return home after their studies. Roughly half these students come from China or India, and students prefer to return to their own countries after graduation.

British universities rely on overseas students for up to a quarter of their income. Research has consistently found that international students have a positive economic impact in the UK. migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/student-migration-to-the-uk/

Now you have the facts, you may like to reframe the discussion.

I hope they ignore any advice from the left to be honest. The middle class left tend not to have any understanding of large sections of the population. They would be better listening to some of the 'thinkers' on the right who have emerged recently. Not necessarily politicians.

MayBee70

Smileless2012

I agree that would be the wise thing to do Siope but it's highly unlikely.

KS is being compared to Tony Blair!!! He doesn't have anything like the charisma.

Charisma isn’t exactly what this country needs at this moment in time. Imo

My own opinion is that Blair’s ‘charisma’ was more that of a smiling assassin.

Galaxy

I hope they ignore any advice from the left to be honest. The middle class left tend not to have any understanding of large sections of the population. They would be better listening to some of the 'thinkers' on the right who have emerged recently. Not necessarily politicians.

That's what Liz Truss did.

No she didnt. She had no coherent message which is what the right needs.

How is the arrival of people on boats without visas anything but uncontrolled immigration MOnica?

There must be many Tory MPs who have never known life in opposition or learned the skills needed to be effective. I hope they make use of David Cameron.

Jeremy Hunt held his seat by putting £kkk of his own money into his own campaign, and spending the whole campaign in his constituency rather than helping the party. A good constituency MP he may be, but those don’t sound like collaborative let alone leadership qualities to me.

The alternative would have been that he lost his seat in all likelihood - it was predicted. He’s a wealthy man and certainly not dependent on keeping his parliamentary salary. He would have been available should Sunak have needed him.

Yes I agree, GSM, that JH isn’t dependent on his parl salary but that was largely what I meant. He was chancellor and bore more responsibility than most for the financial situation. To use his own money to augment his own campaign, and then sit at home and not help his party doesn’t look well to me.

SillyOma

As long as its not another Theresa May or Liz Truss

I wouldn't mention TM and Liz Truss in the same breath. Theresa May was hard working, serious, tenacious and understood the job; for instance the NI issue caused by Brexit. Whereas Boris declared it was all 'oven ready' and a done deal. It wasn't and he couldn't be bothered with the detail to sort it out. TM knew the problems and tried her utmost to deal with them. Truss was always a complete fool.

because GSM controlled immigration is about 20 times greater. The facts, and their sources are all in my post above.

So Hunt has ruled himself out? I need to hope for Tugendhat now.

Thank you Monica for the statistics on immigration - largely ignored in all the drama.

Here is the list of Conservative possible leaders (there may be more)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c51y2lqzxl8o?xtor=ES-211-[74854_PANUK_DIV_27_NEW_ElectionEssential30_RET_COHORT.html]-20240706-[bbcnews_whowillreplacerishisunak_newsuk]

Both Patel and Braverman have been found guilty of wrongdoing. Braverman was taken on by Johnson as Attorney General who wanted someone in that position who had the same attitude towards the law of the land that he had. I’ll never forgive Cleverly for calling Stockton on Tees a s******e. I certainly hope there will be more because, apart from Tugendhat, who seems far too nice to even be considered that list shows how far the party has departed from it’s core values.

MayBee70

So Hunt has ruled himself out? I need to hope for Tugendhat now.

Didn't Tugendhat vote for Liz Truss back in the day? I don't trust his judgment.

We do not have uncontrolled immigration in this country. In 2023, just under 790,000 immigrants arrived in this country legally, and approximately 40,000 illegally

Well, loosely speaking, give or take several hundred.

It is the net migration figure that is important too.
Who are the people who are emigrating from the UK? What skills and professions are we losing and which are we gaining?
Statistics do not give a full picture.

over the past two years net migration has been at the highest level we have seen. Provisional estimates, which provide an early indication of migration, suggest that net migration was 672,000 in the YE June 2023.