COMMENTS DAILY MAIL: Tory members should be offered a real choice

Imagine a sliding door scenario where, instead of sticking their daggers in, Boris Johnsonis back, Rishi Sunak and Sajid Javid had done the decent thing and had shown some loyalty to their leader.

In this parallel universe, Tory MPs would love to dream about where they would spend the summer recess and the name of Carlton Club groper Chris Pincher would have already been relegated to the status of an obscure pub quiz question.

The leadership would still be their charismatic and vote-winning Prime Minister, to whom many owed their jobs after his stormy victory less than three years ago.

And the post would bet he would have wiped the floor in the same way with Sir Keir Starmer (aka “Captain Crasheroony Snoozefest”) and the fringe parties in hopes of joining him in a broad-left bedlam coalition.

Instead, the Tory MPs sadly chose struggle and self-mutilation over stability.

The sad truth is that whoever they choose to replace Boris will be next best. But they should not aggravate a bad situation by denying the grassroots a real choice.

A poll by the influential Conservative Home website shows that more than half of members favor one of the two remaining centre-right candidates: Liz Truss and Kemi Badenoch.

Still, there is a serious danger that neither will make it to the shortlist of two, which is set by Tory MPs before being passed on to members for a final decision. That would smell like a Westminster stitch-up.

The other two leading candidates, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, are in the Social Democratic wing of the party and are willing to raise taxes to balance the books rather than demolish the bloated state.

In the ITV candidate debate last night, the divisions began to widen.

The contrarian form was clearly suited to an energetic Miss Truss, who put Mr Sunak firmly on the line due to low growth and the fact that taxes have risen to 1940, post-war levels on his watch.

Ms Badenoch, meanwhile, attacked the former chancellor over stratospheric levels of Covid fraud.

In an impressive performance, she also embarrassed Miss Mordaunt again for her support for gender self-identification.

Miss Mordaunt’s early shine has faded really quickly as more has become known about her record.

Two former bosses have expressed serious reservations about her ability. And now it turns out that as Cabinet minister, she met the head of Britain’s Muslim Council, in defiance of a government boycott.

Either Miss Mordaunt was unaware of the ban, in which case she was negligent, or she ignored it, which would make her irresponsible. Either failure can be disastrous in a PM.

Mr Sunak reiterated his warning that it would be unwise to cut taxes now, promising nothing but jam tomorrow. Does he understand that people face real hardships?

In contrast, Miss Truss demonstrated her passionate commitment to low-tax conservatism by pledging to relieve the burden of heavily stressed families immediately, rather than waiting for a hypothetical future date.

Significantly, the Conservative Home poll suggests she would beat Mr Sunak or Ms Mordaunt if she made it to the final round. It is true that Mrs. Badenoch is a bright prospect, but giving someone so inexperienced the top job would be a dangerous leap of faith.

However, if both women were banned from the final ballot, the membership would rightly feel they have been betrayed by a Westminster clique.

So when the next election comes and their MP asks them to fill envelopes, organize rallies and knock on doors, they may find they have better things to do.