Some have argued that who leads the Tory Party next matters (Martin Kettle, Guardian) because in what remains currently a two-party Parliamentary system having a viable opposition is important.
There are two problems with this. Firstly surveying the list of potential leaders from November 2024 below, what chance is there of any of them running a credible opposition to Starmer. Far more likely they will be off on a far right bender with Nigel Farage cheering them on.
Secondly as the July 4th Election underlined the two party system is fracturing. There are LibDems, SNP, Socialist Independents, Plaid all in the Commons and while knitting together a Parliamentary opposition in future from them would be far from easy, will it be any harder than thinking a relatively sane Tory Party will somehow reappear?
The political editor of The Spectator Katy Balls has noted of the leadership contest (Guardian 2nd August)
It says something about the state of the Conservative leadership contest that even Tory MPs are struggling to get excited about the next three months. “I see them as a pack of quite average greyhounds,” says one MP of the six contenders vying to succeed Rishi Sunak. Others are refraining from publicly backing a candidate on the grounds that they fear in a few years’ time it may all blow up – and they may have to do it all again.
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