The Conservative leadership contest that concludes this weekend has followed a familiar pattern. What is left of a moderate centre-right Tory tendency has failed to assert itself or even make a compelling argument.
The One Nation caucus didn’t even manage to get a candidate in the final round, thus guaranteeing that the activist choice, whether it is Kemi Badenoch or Robert Jenrick, will be from the radical right. This has been the story of Tory ideological evolution since David Cameron’s decision to call a referendum on leaving the European Union. A gambit that was intended to silence Eurosceptic battle cries for a generation had the opposite effect, turning a fringe proposition into the central pillar of British foreign policy.
