Eight Conservatives will fight it out to succeed Boris Johnson as party leader and British prime minister amid torrid tales of debauchery, disgrace and bitter in-fighting, writes Stanley Szecowka.
The UK national Press has been having a field day in recent days in the lead-up to the Tory MPs going through the first round of voting yesterday.
The bitter civil war engulfing the Conservatives looks set to deepen as the party braces for what is likely to become the dirtiest leadership campaign in history, according to the Sunday Times.
So divided is the party that at least two rival leadership campaign teams have passed the main opposition Labour Party a digital dossier containing a series of lurid allegations about their potential opponents, it revealed.
According to The Times, allegations have been made about one candidate using drugs and prostitutes with a senior Tory party source telling the newspaper: “There are rumours being widely circulated about candidates getting involved in bondage, domination and sadomasochism, claims of inappropriate relationships and compromising explicit photographs that could be used as kompromat.”
In a desperate bid to discredit opponents, claims have been made about one candidate asking staff to deliver government papers to them whilst in the bath, of aides attending orgies and candidates having extramarital affairs.
Dominic Cummings, the Prime Minister’s former aide, waded into the mudslinging competition, writing on Twitter: “At least three current candidates would be worse than Boris. At least one is a spad shagger.”
LBC reported that he later tweeted: “Sorry, correction, I’m informed by Cabinet Office at least two spad shaggers.”
He added that it would be totally unacceptable to have another premier where voters don’t know these facts and they’re open to blackmail.
The normally pro-Tory daily tabloid The Sun joined in the controversy explaining the meaning of the term to its readers, describing it as a technical term for relations between a minister and a special adviser.
Only two hopefuls failed to win the 20 necessary nominations, leaving a wide field of candidates seeking to win the backing of the party with promises of tax cuts, honesty and serious government, in a contrast to Johnson who was forced to announce he would resign after a series of scandals.
Former finance minister Rishi Sunak is considered by insiders as the favourite, and among those he will be taking on are his successor Nadhim Zahawi and foreign minister Liz Truss in what is becoming an increasingly testy and divisive contest.
The next British leader faces a daunting in-tray, Reuters reported, while support for the Conservatives is also falling, polls show.
Britain’s economy is facing rocketing inflation, high debt, and low growth, while people grapple with the tightest squeeze on their finances in decades, all set against a backdrop of an energy crunch exacerbated by the conflict in Ukraine which has sent fuel prices soaring.
As the contest heated up, rival campaigns stepped up private criticism of each other and pointed to either financial or other questions hanging over their opponents.
Sunak kicked off his campaign by portraying himself as the serious candidate, promising ‘grown up’ honesty ‘not fairy tales’, seeking to contrast himself with the extensive tax cuts pledged by most of the other candidates.
“It is not credible to promise lots more spending and lower taxes,” Sunak said, saying tax cuts could only come after soaring inflation was tackled.
As finance minister, Sunak set Britain on course to have its biggest tax burden since the 1950s, and most of the other hopefuls have turned their fire on him by saying they would oversee cuts immediately. The former finance minister has the widest support among colleagues who have publicly expressed their view.
Penny Mordaunt, a junior trade minister who is also heavily tipped, topped a poll of Conservative members on Monday and she too has tried to strike a more measured tone on tax, saying that while she would cut taxes: ‘I will pioneer sound money’.
“I am a small state, low tax Conservative, but I also believe we need to use the levers of government to support jobs and livelihoods through difficult economic situations,” she wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
Attorney General Suella Braverman, former health minister Jeremy Hunt, Tom Tugendhat, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, and Kemi Badenoch, a former junior minister who is scooping up support on the right wing of the party, were among other candidates to enter the first round of the contest.
Foreign Secretary Truss received the backing yesterday of two ministers closest to Johnson – Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg – who have both been critical of Sunak.
The 1922 Committee of Conservative members of parliament which is organising the contest says the field will soon be whittled down with repeated votes in the next few weeks, with the final two then selected by the fewer than 200,000 party members by July 21. The winner, and Britain’s new prime minister, will be announced on September 5.
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