“Badenoch favourite to win Tory leadership in members’ vote against Jenrick”, reports the Guardian. This is unexpected. The format for the Conservative leadership contest this time round was as follows:
Six candidates stood for the leadership: Kemi Badenoch, James Cleverly, Robert Jenrick, Priti Patel, Mel Stride and Tom Tugendhat. They will be eliminated in a series of votes, until two remain to stand in November. On 4 September, Patel was eliminated in the first round of voting, with Jenrick outperforming expectations by coming first. On 10 September, Stride was eliminated in the second round and went on to endorse Cleverly.
Following a strong performance at the Conservative Party Conference, Cleverly emerged as a frontrunner by coming first in the third round of voting, whilst Tugendhat was eliminated.
Despite this, Cleverly was unexpectedly eliminated in a close fourth round of voting when both Badenoch and Jenrick overtook him.
What happened? The Guardian‘s Andrew Sparrow quotes this tweet from Alex Wickham of Bloomberg that might explain it:
Tories saying they think the Cleverly camp lent Jenrick votes to try to keep Badenoch off the ballot but lent too many. Or Cleverly supporters did it off their own backs thinking he was nailed on for the final
Great plot twist, looking forward to the finale.
Yet more proof that the current gaggle of Conservative MPs are incapable of organising the proverbial in a brewery.
I must admit that i was totally unaware that this leadership contest had gone on to the last stage.
If Kemi becomes leader of the opposition, and Trump wins, then 2024 will *perhaps* go down in history as well as 2016.
Mr Cleverly (or Colonel Cleverly – I honour his service, although I do not agree with his political position in the party) would have represented no real change – and the party desperately needs to break with the failed policy of giving in to officials and “experts”. It would be ironic if his own supporters had produced this result – although I do not claim to know.
Yes Snorri – it may be so, I do not know. We shall have to see.
I think I saw this first time round.
Kimi will win the members ballot.
The MPs will disagree, and sabotage her to get the Rishi(whatever) they prefer.
Yawn. Anyone for lettuce?
James Cleverly is perhaps a very strong argument against nominative determinism.
Nice pun in the title btw.
I suppose that many other puns could be made, with a little thought.
And perhaps some of them will be.
I was thinking the opposite, just because we draw a large distinction between “clever” and “wise.”
He was too clever by half.
Spot on! All those polls on Twitter and not one has offered the option: ‘doesn’t matter who leads, they are finished’
Tim the Coder.
Kemi Bendenoch is a rather stronger person than Liz Truss.
There is a desperate need for people who are able to say “no” and stick to “no” when the establishment tell them they “must” do XYZ.
I have met – in the sense of anything from having a drink with through to working for – three major politicians (and many more more minor). Cameron, Nigel and Kemi. Cameron I despised from that first moment. And that was back when he was just down from Oxford. Nigel I like as an individual and am impressed by his political nous. Kemi actually believes.
Make of that what you will.
I was reading about Badenoch (on wikipedia — so take it with a grain of salt.) She seems fabulous, and she apparently used to be a computer programmer — so she definitely gets my vote.
What could be less stereotypical than a Black female computer programmer who turns conservative politician?
I’m still for zero seats. Horrible candidates, all of them jobbers, and Badenoch is no exception.
@Snorri Godhi
What could be less stereotypical than a Black female computer programmer who turns conservative politician?
FWIW, back in the beginning days of the internet Computer programmers and IT people in general were generally very libertarian and anarchic in their outlook. Many of the foundational ideas of the internet are designed to keep the government out and prevent snooping and censorship. The internet grew up in the post Vietnam days which was very much free love, free drugs, and free software. I’m not sure when things changed, but FWIW, as a body, in my experience, programmers are still more libertarian than the general public.