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| Who should be the next Tory leader? Our panel responds | Who should be the next Tory leader? Our panel responds |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Polly Toynbee: Amber Rudd would be best at leading the party back to ordinary Conservatism – which is why she’s out at 66-1 | |
| Choosing from this gallery of rogues, fanatics and non-entities is like playing the children’s game: would you rather be burned at the stake, hanged drawn and quartered or squashed by a steamroller? | |
| In the weird world of the Tory leadership stakes, Boris Johnson has almost certainly won the race already. The victor will be essentially illegitimate, our prime minister chosen by 100,000 eccentric, elderly and extreme Brexiteer Tory party members usurping the right of 46 million electors. The same rotten borough vote took Gordon Brown to No 10: failing to fight for it did him no good. | In the weird world of the Tory leadership stakes, Boris Johnson has almost certainly won the race already. The victor will be essentially illegitimate, our prime minister chosen by 100,000 eccentric, elderly and extreme Brexiteer Tory party members usurping the right of 46 million electors. The same rotten borough vote took Gordon Brown to No 10: failing to fight for it did him no good. |
| After Johnson, the next most dangerous contenders are Dominic Raab and Liz Truss, zealots of deregulation and free market. Michael Gove is best placed as the anyone-but-Boris man with Murdoch’s useful backing, but beneath his facade of elaborate civility, party loyalty and token greenery (plastic straws not carbon emissions) lurks a far more seriously clever and threatening rightwing ideologist than any of the above. For the rest, Sajid Javid would be dully ineffective, making stabs at random “popular” policies, his bus-driver dad backstory a pretty thin veneer for a lacklustre financier. Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and Penny Mordaunt won’t get near the final cut. | After Johnson, the next most dangerous contenders are Dominic Raab and Liz Truss, zealots of deregulation and free market. Michael Gove is best placed as the anyone-but-Boris man with Murdoch’s useful backing, but beneath his facade of elaborate civility, party loyalty and token greenery (plastic straws not carbon emissions) lurks a far more seriously clever and threatening rightwing ideologist than any of the above. For the rest, Sajid Javid would be dully ineffective, making stabs at random “popular” policies, his bus-driver dad backstory a pretty thin veneer for a lacklustre financier. Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey and Penny Mordaunt won’t get near the final cut. |
| If some magician’s wand healed the party of its Brexit-mania, Rory Stewart would be more interesting than Matt Hancock or Jeremy Hunt. But Amber Rudd would be best at leading the party back into the realms of ordinary Conservatism – which is why she is out at 66-1. The party’s ill-wishers will be praying for a Johnson win. | If some magician’s wand healed the party of its Brexit-mania, Rory Stewart would be more interesting than Matt Hancock or Jeremy Hunt. But Amber Rudd would be best at leading the party back into the realms of ordinary Conservatism – which is why she is out at 66-1. The party’s ill-wishers will be praying for a Johnson win. |
| • Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist | • Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist |
| Kate Maltby: Penny Mordaunt deserves real credit for trying to make Brexit work | Kate Maltby: Penny Mordaunt deserves real credit for trying to make Brexit work |
| Imagine a Tory prime minister who believed seriously in tackling the climate emergency. A social liberal, with nonetheless unimpeachable Brexiteer credentials. Experienced in global governance as UK governor of the World Bank. A naval reservist who paid her own way through sixth form after her mother died and her father developed cancer, leaving her the carer for a younger brother. | |
| The next Tory leader needs to be someone who voted leave. I voted, reluctantly, remain – but we remainers need to accept that the electorate disagreed and still disagrees with us. The Brexit party’s likely success in this week’s European elections will increase pressure on the Conservative party to elect a leader with Brexiteer credentials, who stands a chance of countering Nigel Farage’s betrayal narrative and resisting the populism of victimhood. | The next Tory leader needs to be someone who voted leave. I voted, reluctantly, remain – but we remainers need to accept that the electorate disagreed and still disagrees with us. The Brexit party’s likely success in this week’s European elections will increase pressure on the Conservative party to elect a leader with Brexiteer credentials, who stands a chance of countering Nigel Farage’s betrayal narrative and resisting the populism of victimhood. |
| Theresa May resignation: Tories to choose new prime minister by July – live news | |
| Penny Mordaunt is one of the few politicians who voted for Brexit and then stuck it out in government for the hard work of coming up with a workable deal. She came very close to resigning after Chequers – but unlike that trio of destructive poltergeists, Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab and David Davis, she was too committed to avoiding the nightmare no-deal scenario. These are times that cry with the howl of the hungry for a leader who understands what it is to compromise. | |
| Mordaunt isn’t the only Brexiteer minister who deserves credit for trying to make a deal work. When I dealt with Leadsom on reforms to parliament’s harassment code, I was pleasantly surprised to find a serious professional, not the media caricature of 2016. But her brand of social conservatism will never be mine. I’ve always admired Gove for his fiery intellect, but there is no question that he has alienated vast swathes of the national electorate over the years. In fact – in a threat to Gove, Raab and Johnson – Tory leadership contests are often won by whoever has the fewest kamikaze enemies. Put your pennies on everybody’s friend, Penny. | Mordaunt isn’t the only Brexiteer minister who deserves credit for trying to make a deal work. When I dealt with Leadsom on reforms to parliament’s harassment code, I was pleasantly surprised to find a serious professional, not the media caricature of 2016. But her brand of social conservatism will never be mine. I’ve always admired Gove for his fiery intellect, but there is no question that he has alienated vast swathes of the national electorate over the years. In fact – in a threat to Gove, Raab and Johnson – Tory leadership contests are often won by whoever has the fewest kamikaze enemies. Put your pennies on everybody’s friend, Penny. |
| • Kate Maltby writes about theatre, politics and culture | • Kate Maltby writes about theatre, politics and culture |
| Gaby Hinsliff: The next Tory leader needs to take us back to the drawing board on Brexit | Gaby Hinsliff: The next Tory leader needs to take us back to the drawing board on Brexit |
| None of the above. That’s the obvious answer to the question of which eager contender should lead the Tories after Theresa May; none of them are knockouts and besides, it’s unclear if the party can even now be led. How can one person satisfy the “Brexit even if it kills us” brigade as well as those who still remember what “conservative” actually means? But someone has to get the job, so brace yourselves. | None of the above. That’s the obvious answer to the question of which eager contender should lead the Tories after Theresa May; none of them are knockouts and besides, it’s unclear if the party can even now be led. How can one person satisfy the “Brexit even if it kills us” brigade as well as those who still remember what “conservative” actually means? But someone has to get the job, so brace yourselves. |
| As things stand, Britain leaves the EU without a deal in October unless we first pass a withdrawal agreement. May wouldn’t have kept flogging the corpse of her deal for so long if she hadn’t felt that no deal would be disastrous – and her successor must have the guts to admit she was right about needing a deal, if not this deal. They should then seek to extend the October deadline, arguing that we need to go back to the drawing board. It follows that the two qualities any Tory leader should possess are being halfway sensible, yet trusted enough by hard Brexiters to get away with another delay. Unfortunately that’s rather a contradiction in terms. | As things stand, Britain leaves the EU without a deal in October unless we first pass a withdrawal agreement. May wouldn’t have kept flogging the corpse of her deal for so long if she hadn’t felt that no deal would be disastrous – and her successor must have the guts to admit she was right about needing a deal, if not this deal. They should then seek to extend the October deadline, arguing that we need to go back to the drawing board. It follows that the two qualities any Tory leader should possess are being halfway sensible, yet trusted enough by hard Brexiters to get away with another delay. Unfortunately that’s rather a contradiction in terms. |
| Rudd is the only remain candidate with the courage plus the experience for the job, for all that the Windrush scandal tarnished her. But Tory members won’t want another remainer, so some MPs are convincing themselves that Johnson is the sensible-at-heart leaver they seek. While they’re probably right about his natural instincts, his neediness feels like a red flag. The next Tory leader will be hated for what they have to tell Brexiteers and Johnson has that craving to be loved which can lead people down the path of least resistance. The only Brexiteer ticking both boxes is – deep breath – Gove. | Rudd is the only remain candidate with the courage plus the experience for the job, for all that the Windrush scandal tarnished her. But Tory members won’t want another remainer, so some MPs are convincing themselves that Johnson is the sensible-at-heart leaver they seek. While they’re probably right about his natural instincts, his neediness feels like a red flag. The next Tory leader will be hated for what they have to tell Brexiteers and Johnson has that craving to be loved which can lead people down the path of least resistance. The only Brexiteer ticking both boxes is – deep breath – Gove. |
| No, teachers haven’t forgiven him, and he might not beat Jeremy Corbyn in a general election (an obvious requirement for Tories). Gove himself once said he didn’t think he was up to the job, and perhaps he was right. But he has strategic focus, political intelligence, goodwill with colleagues and he’s one of very few ministers whose reputation emerges enhanced from May’s government – if only because it had fallen so low post-referendum. The truth is Conservatives could do worse than Gove; the fear is that they might. | No, teachers haven’t forgiven him, and he might not beat Jeremy Corbyn in a general election (an obvious requirement for Tories). Gove himself once said he didn’t think he was up to the job, and perhaps he was right. But he has strategic focus, political intelligence, goodwill with colleagues and he’s one of very few ministers whose reputation emerges enhanced from May’s government – if only because it had fallen so low post-referendum. The truth is Conservatives could do worse than Gove; the fear is that they might. |
| • Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist | • Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist |
| Martha Gill: Rory Stewart has the virtue that matters most in our next PM: he is clever | |
| Rory Stewart would best serve the interests of the country as Tory leader. He has been relegated to outsider status in the race by colleagues who say he faces two major obstacles: he is not an out-and-out Brexiteer, and he is not a well known, charismatic figure. But this assessment is a mistake. The international development secretary – who has been a diplomat, a regional governor in Iraq, a Harvard professor and an author – has the virtue that matters most in our next prime minister. He is clever. | |
| First, let us deal with the Brexiteer problem. Tories who wish to leave the EU with no deal have successfully spun that the next leader “must be a strong Brexiteer”. But this is not true. May’s fatal flaw was not her remain bent: indeed, she paid much more attention to the right of her party than the left. It would be disastrous for the prospects of the country if the Tories followed Farage off a no-deal cliff. The party must find a leader who can stomach a compromise – May was right to point this out in her departing speech. Compromise is inevitable anyway: Brexit purists will always find a way to object to the way we leave the EU. We need a Tory leader with the political capacity to do this. | |
| Feel no pity for Theresa May. She has been the worst prime minister in modern times | Owen Jones | |
| The idea that the next leader must be hugely charismatic is another error of overcorrection. A quiet, serious leader can gain the respect of the country very quickly – indeed, a lack of charisma can actually translate as competence, as May’s initial popularity showed (before she started making terrible mistakes). It was not a lack of personality that floored our departing prime minister. It was a lack of intellect. | |
| May’s problem was that she was not clever enough. She could not see a strategic choice without making the wrong one. She set red lines at the start of the negotiations which she then had to retreat from. Her “no deal is better than a bad deal” line was a stupid bluff. She chose to pander to the extreme Brexiteers in the party, who would never be satisfied with a sensible outcome. She triggered article 50 without a complete plan. She raised expectations of what the UK could achieve in a deal with the EU, then attempted to hide what was going on from the public. Of all the virtues we could wish for in our next prime minister, intelligence is the most important. And this is Stewart’s strength. | |
| • Martha Gill is a political journalist and former lobby correspondent | |
| Conservative leadership | Conservative leadership |
| The panel | The panel |
| Conservatives | Conservatives |
| Theresa May | Theresa May |
| Michael Gove | Michael Gove |
| Boris Johnson | Boris Johnson |
| Andrea Leadsom | Andrea Leadsom |
| Penny Mordaunt | Penny Mordaunt |
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