Next Tory Leader.

Johnson won’t unite the party but may win some Tory Voters back from Farage, which will be at the back of the minds off those few people who get to choose. It’s all about what’s good for the party, not the country though, which is the tragedy. Seems we don’t mind about politicians’ poor track record, how badly they’ve performed before, the evidence of lying etc, as long as they get plenty of media attention and can talk the talk.

Nigel Farage has certainly been the catalyst for the leadership contest in my opinion.

If he hadn’t formed his Brexit Party I don’t think much else would have changed and TM would’ve still been dragging that WA back into the HoC for a fourth vote!

A poll on Wednesday night showed NF storming ahead in the EU elections on 31% and the Lib Dems on 11%

We shall know on Monday.

crystal I’m not sure about talk the talk he certainly can’t walk the walk and the rest of the world is aware of that fact. What an awful embarrassment Johnson would be. Excruciating.

Rory Stewart has just unequivocally on R4 said he would not serve under BJ. No ifs or buts.

mary there are a number of Tories who think like that.

That is an issue the whole party will have to grapple with, as it would leave it a definite minority government and unable to govern at all.

Yes I do know that ww my point was that he said it today unequivocally and he’s a serving minister and potential contender. No one else in that position has said that and I’m not holding my breath for the list to grow. Most of them will be too desperate to get a job with BJ to be so honourable.

True

Do you think that the drive to keep the party intact is so strong that Remain tory MPs would accept a Leaver leader? One threatening no deal, too?

I suspect there could be more defections.

What Lucky said with bells on and x a million.

Yes I do Maizie it’s Tories we are talking about here - self interest first: second and last

maize and mary

I would hope that integrity was still alive, and that those potential leaders like Raab who seem to be on a no deal ticket will be rejected by those who put country before party.

But I think you may be right mary

Well I fear ww that your optimism is probably ill founded. What might happen is that leadership support for RS becomes a sort of proxy for the ABB camp. We’ll see

And lucky I echo mary

The fact that she had the nerve to quote a socialist in talking about compromise. That from someone where the very idea of compromise always seemed an anathema, even when she was compromising with the opposition, she simply stated her position, and expected everyone to fall in line.

Surely whoever takes over, the issue remains the same. Leavers want a clean, no deal break whilst remainers think the deal we currently have is the best of any European country. Neither will countenance compromise. Which is why TM's deal got nowhere.

That situation has not changed, nor will a change of leadership make a difference to the challenge ahead.

Interesting times, I fear.

A bit too interesting for me.

Apparently Rory Stewart’s nickname is ‘Florence of Arabia’.

And your point with that nasty little post urm is what exactly? Yuk

I quite liked Stewart until I saw his voting record.

Sadly ww that will be true of all contenders I believe

Oh lighten up maryeliza! No one quibbled at ‘Gove the Snake’ or any Bon mots about Boris. Just because RS is more the Remainer’s chosen man of the moment it’s suddenly not nice.
?

Urm stop being so disingenuous

I have been thinking about the potentials for Tory leader and have come to the conclusion that, I don’t think there has ever been a situation like this one where so many will stand and not a single one is any good.

We need serious help!

I keep seeing quotes from IDS and find it amusing [sad; confusing...] that he and everyone else seems to have forgotten that he was a failed party leader who even Michael Portillo said was too far right. How times have changed...

Really interesting on LBC majjid says the Tories will need a brexiteer and one that has the charisma to beat Corbyn and Farrage.

Obviously the only candidate is Boris.

SO.... We are to have a new Prime Minister, who is going to Unite the whole UK and turn it once again into a Land of Hope and Glory. It seems likely that the new PM will be Boris Johnson, who has already made a good start on the Uniting front by publishing this:

“The Scotch - what a verminous race!
Canny, pushy, chippy, they're all over the place.
Battening off us with false bonhomie;
Polluting our stock, undermining our economy.
Down with sandy hair and knobbly knees!
Suppress the tartan dwarves and the Wee Frees!
Ban the kilt, the skean-dhu and the sporran
As provocatively, offensively foreign!
It's time Hadrian's Wall was refortified
To pen them in a ghetto on the other side.
I would go further. The nation
Deserves not merely isolation
But comprehensive extermination.
We must not flinch from a solution.”

To be completely fair, he didn't write that, but it was published in The Spectator under his editorship.