If the purpose of a long Conservative leadership contest was to facilitate an audit of what caused July’s catastrophic general election defeat and identify a candidate who can steer the party to recovery, it has failed. The past three months of internal Tory debate have been characterised mostly by denial and retreat to dogmatic comfort zones. There is no reason to expect the final-round contest between Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick to change that dynamic. Both candidates draw their support from the radical right of the party and, while there have been differences of nuance and tone in their campaigns, neither has shown any interest in making the Conservative party more responsive to mainstream British public opinion.
Of the four candidates who addressed the recent Tory conference, it was James Cleverly who best summarised the challenge when he urged his party to “be more normal”. That would require recognition of what made the party not just unpopular but viscerally repugnant to millions of voters in July. Mr Cleverly’s parliamentary colleagues declined to put him on the final shortlist. Normality, as he might have defined it, will not be on the ballot paper sent to Conservative members.
