Here we go: the race begins today. The 1922 Committee will meet late this afternoon to formally launch the process of selecting Britain’s next Prime Minister; the big question hovering over the meeting is what – not if – number of backers they’ll increase the qualification threshold to. Currently eight, however with 11 candidates plus a likely Priti attempt it’s expected it could increase anywhere from 20 backers to 36. A tenth of the parliamentary party…
The state of play this morning looks almost the same as last night, albeit after a frantic weekend – Guido disputes it was anything of the sort – by the end of which 44% of MPs have backed a horse, it’s unsurprising movement’s slowing down.
Saying that, Liz Truss has managed to draw into joint third place after her campaign launch in the Telegraph last night. Kwasi Kwarteng was the big name to back her, however it’s a triple ministerial byline in The Times from Ranil Jayawardena, Wendy Morton and Vicky Ford who have helped her overtake Nadhim. Harking back to the now-infamous 2019 triple Boris-backing-byline by Rishi, Jenrick and Dowden…
Rishi remains well in the lead, beating second place Penny Mordaunt by 13 backers. Before the 1922 Committee writes the rules for the contest, there’s the small business of electing a new executive – a process that, just a week ago, was dominated by talk about whether there’d be enough anti-Boris members to force a rule change. It’s unlikely Sir Graham will be leaving his post…
Looking ahead to the rest of the week, nominations must be submitted to Sir Graham by 6pm on Tuesday, with voting due to start on Wednesday after PMQs. The first result will be announced early on Wednesday evening. Thursday, another vote will be held ad infinitum until we have two final candidates to go before the Tory membership. Strap in for another mad week…
The backers in full can be found here:
Labour MP Vicky Foxcroft made ripples at PMQs by using sign language to make a point about deaf accessibility in society, specifically the lack of an interpreter in the new No. 10 live broadcast studio. After silently signing “why no interpreter in the room”, Foxcroft asked:
“And if the Prime Minister doesn’t understand, imagine how those who rely on British Sign Language feel at his press briefings?
“£2.6 million spent on the new press room, yet still no interpreter. What message does he think this sends to disabled people?”
There’s just one problem with this attack line: No. 10 does broadcast live signing for the deaf. In the two No. 10 briefings from the new studio, both were live-streamed on YouTube with sign language interpretation. The BBC also broadcast with a live-signing…
Still, brave not to do any fact-checking ahead of your big PMQs moment…
Tory MP Vicky Ford has today introduced a truly seismic bill that would ban letter boxes being placed at the bottom of doors in newly built constructions. Presented as a health and safety measure, Guido suspects it is more aimed at tired canvassers…
It seems to have a lot support and is scheduled to have its second reading on Friday 8th March. Presumably the support comes from very lazy MPs…
Now that this 10 minute rule motion is over, we’re on to the smaller issue of a vote of no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government…
The PM hosted a delegation of eight pro-EU Tory MEPs at Downing Street on Monday morning. Brussels colleagues were surprised to see the group led by Vicky Ford, the East of England MEP who has spent the past year flexing her Eurosceptic muscles, calling for a clampdown on migrants and British “jurisdiction over courts, employment law and human rights”. Ford apparently went full Europhile in front of Dave, heaping praise on his renegotiation strategy and claiming she was leading the pro-EU charge for the Tories in Brussels. A fellow MEP whispers:
“She has managed to upset everyone! MEPs who want to leave the EU are angry at her hypocrisy and pro-EU MEPs are furious that Vicky, who is renowned for her temperamental nature, is claiming to lead them!”
Doh!
