“None of the above” has the best part of a quarter of the vote. In the surveys since the election, it has successively come first, first, second, second – and now first again.
If a Minister is guilty of bullying, harrassment or abuse, he should go. But behaviour that falls short of these should not require resignation.
May’s damaged authority is having a beneficial side-effect – namely, freeing Tory MPs to think aloud about the Party’s future.
“Other” is second, Rees-Mogg third, and Davis fourth. The shape of the results is very similar to that of a recent YouGov poll.
Davis leads with less than a fifth of the vote. Johnson is on his lowest total ever. And if one counts write-ins, in second place is…Rees-Mogg.
We now have eleven runners and riders in our Next Tory Leader section…with another 15 candidates standing by. Watch this space.
The prospect of crowning the the Brexit Secretary as leader is not without its attractions at first glance, but turns out on closer inspection to be deeply problematic.
A summary of the news from the junior ranks to date. Announcements of appointments yet to conclude.
His new book, ‘The Marches’, is a fascinating exploration of a land and people caught between Scotland and England.
The most senior Minister in place at home has a great task before him – helping his country find a new international role (and restoring the morale of an exhausted department).
Plus: Boris’s party is raided by the Vice and Drugs Squads. The Home Secretary says it was “a police operational decision”
The floods minister had an adventurous early life, and is seen as a future Foreign Secretary, but how long can he bear Establishment life?
Progress has been made, but a narrow focus prevents the area flourishing as a popular Conservative principle.
Plus: Zac Goldsmith tells me that he won’t stand in a by-election if the Heathrow decision fails to go his way.
The Mayor of London leads the Business Secretary by a single vote.
His new book, ‘The Marches’, is a fascinating exploration of a land and people caught between Scotland and England.