Good morning. Considering the promises that the Conservative leadership contest would be ruthlessly efficient at whittling down the field, there really are quite a lot of people left who still think they might be prime minister.
After the first round of voting, Rishi Sunak is in the lead, and Liz Truss has a speech scheduled where she will promise to make the UK an “aspiration nation,” whatever that is – but it’s Penny Mordaunt who’s on many of the front pages today for her surging performance. Meanwhile, chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former runner-up Jeremy Hunt have been eliminated. Them’s the breaks, as someone once said.
