Hard as it always is to say when the rust set in, I think the deciding moment was the immediate aftermath of Boris Johnson’s resignation on July 7. Faced with the rubble of what amounted to an ethical crash — the long disaster of partygate and the allegations of sexual misconduct levelled at former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher — the Conservative leadership contenders agreed silently on a wretched collective strategy: which was more or less to ignore the huge problem of trust, standards in public life and the spectre of sleaze, and to conduct instead a wholly separate debate on tax cuts.
Liz Truss, you will recall, was in favour of slashing taxation. Rishi Sunak, in contrast, stood his ground against “fairytale economics”. Sunak was right, but Truss was declared the victor on September 5.
