The Tory void

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Perhaps Tory MPs still haven’t got the message. Mere months after the party’s catastrophic electoral wipeout, the Conservatives are getting starry eyed over another vision-free potential leader. James Cleverly was the unexpected winner of this afternoon’s Tory-leadership knockout round (RIP Tom Tungendhat). No doubt MPs were impressed by Cleverly’s jovial conference speech last week, in which he urged his party comrades to be more ‘normal’, less ‘grumpy’ and to sell ‘Conservatism with a smile’. Above all, he wanted to communicate that he’s a professional, a pragmatist, a safe pair of hands. The same qualities, in other words, that endeared so many MPs to that empty technocrat, Rishi Sunak. And we all know how that worked out. At least Cleverly has a decent sense of humour, but there remains a serious political void at the heart of contemporary Toryism that most Tory MPs appear desperate to ignore.

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