The jubilee coup is under way. The rumbling turmoil in the Tory party is a wonder to behold – but it runs deep, stretching far further back in time than Boris Johnson’s brief calamitous leadership.
The old chameleon party used to pick itself up and start all over again with some new face and logo, feigning ignorance of all that went before. Not this time. This is a party riddled with eccentric ideologues too remote from moderate election-winning ground to select any leader but one of their ilk. The 54 MPs’ letters required to trigger a vote against their leader have arrived on the doormat of the 1922 Committee’s chair, Graham Brady. The vote will take place tonight. “Red wall” MPs have turned white at the latest JL Partners Wakefield poll putting Labour 20 points ahead. “Blue wall” MPs face the even more astounding prospect of the Liberal Democrats upending a massive 24,000 majority in Tiverton and Honiton. The stampede to save themselves seems to be on.
