Tory party members; choosing your next party leader and everyone's next PM, what, who, why?

HousePlantQueen I voted for Boris Johnson, I knew all about his illustrious past but liked his optimism, positivity and forthright attitude.
I believed that he was egotistical enough to want to go down in history as a bloody good Prime Minister who levelled up our country. I suppose I voted with hope in my heart.
I didn’t fancy Hunt as I felt he’d made a mess dealing with The NHS.
I felt that he would have followed through, I like his handling of Ukraine, his handling of the vaccine, could have forgiven the parties but the straw that gave this camel the hump was the ridiculous inhumane idea of sending desperate people to Rwanda.

Thanks Laura. I haven’t listened to all of it but Anna Soubry said on Any Questions that she liked Tom Tugendhat. She may mention others when I listen to the whole programme. I probably campaigned with more Conservative party members than Labour pre and post referendum. It does give you a different slant on things.

Thank you Laurenorder. It is good to read a calm, reasoned post about voting history and intent. I agree about Hunt; he is certainly more presentable on the world stage and his personal behaviour is presumably less sordid than Johnson's, but we need to remember that he was in charge of the NHS for a very long time, is pro privatisation and is responsible for many of the problems we have now. Not forgetting he marked operation cygnet as being too hard to deal with, thus is in my mind at least, hugely responsible for the excess deaths of covid19. My views on Johnson are in the public domain

Tom Tugendhat voted Remain in the Brexit vote.
No wonder Anna Soubry is a fan.
?

I'm glad not to be a Tory Party member, perish the thought, as would have real difficulty deciding who to vote for!

Brexiteers really need to leave that issue behind - you won, it's happened and it seems self-destructive to choose a leader on the basis of how they voted in the EU referendum.

But go ahead and vote for a tax-cutter, brexiteer, outlier, chancer, take your choice - the odder the better come the General Election!

Thank goodness Rees-Mogg has not thrown his hat into the ring as he is against abortion even in rape cases.

I’m truly not rehashing the Brexit vote per se but some who voted Remain have also termed themselves ‘Rejoiners’. Hard negotiating needs to be done yet with Brussels (and Dublin). And the civil servants have an agenda over it. It’s not been ‘done’ it’s still soft and undercooked. We need someone to continue getting this over the line, which is the only reason I mentioned Tugendhat/Soubry.

I heard someone say: we can’t have a tiny leader. We can’t have someone that Macron could look down on ?

President Zelensky is 'tiny' - does anyone look down on him?

Lots of Tory skullduggery - makes great theatre!

Lord Frost?

Prentice

If you were black as I am growstuff you certainly would not have to ask that question.
Getting on in any sphere, politics included is still harder for those of us with ethnic backgrounds.
Am not complaining at all, just seeing things for what they are.

Prentice Look beyond the colour of Badenoch's skin! Look at her politics and ideology! When Minister for Equalities, she was the one who denied that racism in the UK exists. She actively despises people who claim that it does. She is no more representative of black people than I am, so I see no earthly reason why anybody should celebrate that she is putting herself forward to be PM. Despite what Kemi used to claim about her upbringing (before it became convenient to drop the back story), she's the private school educated daughter of middle-class academics and her late father was a prominent Yoruba leader in Nigeria. Her mother flew to London especially, so that Kemi could be born in the UK and have British nationality. She's the puppet of a quite nasty little clique and gets away with some of the things she says because she's black.

Am amazed at your reaction growstuff do you get away with saying some things because of your colour? I know that I don’t.
I have not promoted Kemi Badenoke on this thread and honestly do not know if she would make a good PM, from what I have heard so far about the candidates she is not ahead
Of any of the others.All I will say is that there are many other ethnic candidates and I wish them well.They will all have had a more difficult time getting ahead in politics.May the best man, or woman win the contest.

Urmstongran

I’m truly not rehashing the Brexit vote per se but some who voted Remain have also termed themselves ‘Rejoiners’. Hard negotiating needs to be done yet with Brussels (and Dublin). And the civil servants have an agenda over it. It’s not been ‘done’ it’s still soft and undercooked. We need someone to continue getting this over the line, which is the only reason I mentioned Tugendhat/Soubry.

But Johnson won an election by saying his deal was oven ready? What did I misinterpret about ‘ oven ready’? Anna really isn’t as shallow as to base her opinion on leave or remain. And she warned people about Johnson’s character flaws for years and that wasn’t purely down to the referendum.

I took ‘oven ready’ as ‘good to go’. By its very definition it wasn’t ‘cooked’.
Since then with all those in the HoC trying their best (Soubry was one and eventually her constituents booted her out as that constituency was a 70% Leave area) to thwart the progress of Brexit via ‘indicative votes’ - remember those? - Boris was our saviour.
Well, if you voted Leave.

Candidates aren’t making a point of their remainder or brexiteer status, it’s being dug up as background information. This harping on it is beside the main point.

For Remainers, it is. ?
Those of us who want to crack on with Brexit, it IS important.
Closet Remainers will never try as hard, sadly, in negotiations.
A soft Brexit suits them well.
It’s understandable.

Back to the OP’s post, I’m surprised how few Tory members there have been, putting forward an opinion. Anybody out there?

LauraNorderr

As a fully paid up member of the Conservative Party I will have a vote between the final two. Looking at the candidates thus far I will struggle.
I will study them all and hopefully find one with some new ideas to make the necessary changes to take us forward in this very different world.
Integrity, compassion, a good grip of finance and economy, an optimistic but realistic outlook so that we can feel confident in our future. A statesman to earn respect on the world stage. A believer in aspiration and the know-how to create opportunity. Someone strong enough to take tough decisions and not court popularity but with the ability to take good advice and the wisdom to recognise good advice.
That’s it for now. Hoping for a miracle obvs.

The qualities that you are hoping for are all good. However, I think that although many of the candidates are talking the talk, they are saying one thing and thinking another. Many of them are on the extreme right of the party and in favour of a small state. They will not be stating that for any potential voters to hear.

It should not be forgotten that since the Tories came to power, long before covid and Brexit had any effect upon the economy, the country has been in a state of austerity, Also, it should not be forgotten that Johnson did not act alone in doling out contracts to his friends.

Maybe other Tory supporters are irritated by your constant determination to make everything in politics about Brexit Urm? That shop has sunk sailed and there are other important factors such as how the candidates propose to deal with the looming cost of living crisis, Ukraine war, the Good Friday Agreement to name a few. Not everyone sees Remainer conspiracies around every corner. Time to move on

Prentice

Am amazed at your reaction growstuff do you get away with saying some things because of your colour? I know that I don’t.
I have not promoted Kemi Badenoke on this thread and honestly do not know if she would make a good PM, from what I have heard so far about the candidates she is not ahead
Of any of the others.All I will say is that there are many other ethnic candidates and I wish them well.They will all have had a more difficult time getting ahead in politics.May the best man, or woman win the contest.

Why are you amazed? Kemi Badenoch is my MP and I've followed what she says. She denies racism exists, so cut the "faux" amazement!

Badenoch has not had a more difficult time "getting ahead" and despises anybody who claims they have. She comes from a privileged background, which has given her advantages. It is because she doesn't recognise race barriers in her own experience that she denies they exist for anyone. I look beyond the "successful black woman" rhetoric.

I haven’t got a vote since I’m not a member of the Conservative party, nor any other political party for that matter, but I’m disillusioned with them all. I particularly don’t want Rishi Sunak though because of his wife’s tax evasion, therefore although it wasn’t illegal, I regard it as dishonest to tax other highly, whilst avoiding paying the full rate for his family.

Another poll. Guessology to some extent. I’m not sure small group samples are indicative and do people, if questioned really tell the truth? Wonder what the bookmaker’s odds are?

I am, generally, a Tory voter but not a member of the party.

Currently I would vote for Sajid Javid or Tom Tugendhat. That could change.

I would hate it to be Rishi for reasons others have stated.

I’m not a conservative part member ?

I hope the tories choose the best/least worst candidate. Most of them are dreadful. Many are discredited because they went out, as instructed and lied for Johnson.
Penny Mordant is interesting and I like what I’ve seen of Tom Tugendhat. Both of them have served this country so dare we hope there’s a commitment to public service.