Thought it would be nice to start a thread regarding the coming leadership election for the Conservative party in the United Kingdom.
Prime Minister David Cameron resigned in the aftermath of the Brexit vote and remain in office until this party elects a new leadership, hence his successor as prime minister. I know the Labour Party is facing a crisis with Jeremy Corbyn being dealt a major blow with 172 MPs voting no confidence against him, but I am interested in what the Conservatives will do next and whom they ultimately select.
Likely contenders:
Boris Johnson- former London mayor and face of the Brexit camp(besides UKIP leader Nigel Farage) MP for Uxbridge
Theresa May-current Home Secretary, Remain supporter but stayed out the campaign before the referendum and made herself scare and neutral, MP for Maidenhead
Jeremy Hunt-current secretary for Health, MP for Southwest Surrey, Remain supporter
Nicky Morgan- Education secretary, MP for Loughborough, Remain supporter
Stephen Crabb-current secretary for Work and Pensions, MP for Pembrokeshire, Wales. Remain supporter. He will run with Business Secretary Sajid Javid, as Chancellor Exchequer or Treasury.
Speaking of Chancellor of Exchequer, George Osborne will not run.
There are several other names, but these are top ones.
Only Stephen Crabb has actually announced and made it official.
Of he top names, only Boris Johnson was in the Leave/Brexit camp.
I think Boris Johnson should be the leader of the Conservatives, given he came out bravely and took the Brexit position. Many had thought Remain would ultimately win but Brexit won. Sure Johnson came out in support of Brexit due to personal ambitions and Machiavellian reasons, but there is nothing wrong with that. It has been known that Boris always wanted to eventually become British PM, and the only way he could was to go into the Brexit camp. Without this he hardly would have a chance, many see him as silly and not serious.
He took a side and that side was the winning side, and as a leading Brexiter, has the right to become prime minister. Theresa May on the other hand did not campaign for either side, even though she is a Remain supporter. Nothing wrong with that, it’s like she was neutral. But I believe Boris took the ore braver position, his gamble paid off.
Another poster in support of Boris Johnson here. It sounds as if his Leave stance has both helped and hindered him with tory Mp’s and membership. Johnson is a far better communicator and vote winner than his fellow challengers. Theresa May is gaining in popularity. I do have a problem with May: at the moment of great political challenge it’s just not good enough to have gone into hiding. It may have been a clever political stance, but as an advert for her leadership skills it was probably less than ideal.
He won a battle but it may well cost him the war, being the face of the Brexit campaign is not a good thing when to comes to the opinions of almost half the electorate and it would cost him and the party big time come a general election.
I’m not sure I would say that gambling possibly his political career on a result that was as near 50/50 as possible without deadlocking is a brave thing to do, honestly. Or that it was a smart gamble; it’s almost a toss of a coin.
Johnson’s main attraction is his electoral appeal. His role in Brexit may or may not have harmed him, but for a Tory to win twice in London was a spectacular success. His proven ability too woo centrists is far better than anyone he will be running against.
As a general rule; any Tory candidate The Independent, Guardian, Mirror and Straightdopers rail against most is probably the candidate best suited as Tory leader.
I utterly reject this characterisation. As Mayor of London if nothing else, Johnson must have known how disastrous BREXIT will be. He choose to support it out of breathtaking cynicism because of his as you say ‘personal ambition and Machiavellian reasons’. For the record, since you seem confused. Causing massive damage to your countrys future to facilitate your power grab. There is in fact something wrong with that. It is the act of a callous power hungry sociopath devoid of empathy for all those on whose behalf he’s supposed to be acting.
These are disqualifying character flaws in the man you want running your country.
Last night, they were buddies in this together. This morning? Boris must be raging. Just when you thought that Labour were the ones being overtaken by infighting…
Theresa May now. Despite being quietly Remain in the referendum is now making quite firm Brexit noises, especially on immigration.
Personally I’ll go with any PM who salvages as much as they can from the EU and doesn’t think all we need to stay afloat outside the EU is stupid Churchillian fluff about ‘believing in Britain’.
I wonder also if Gove is now standing as he fears Boris is trying to back out of Brexit.
That’s what he’s signalling, anyway. It’s “events since last Thursday” which have persuaded him that Boris isn’t up to the job. Up to that point, he implies, he looked forward to a fulfilling career as the boy who polishes Boris’s boots.
I think the way Gove is positioning himself is this:
May is the Remainer who now opportunistically offers to deliver Leave
Boris is the opportunistic Leaver who will try to deliver Remain
but stout-hearted Gove is the honest Leaver who will truly deliver Leave.