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Shadow chancellor to deliver prestigious Mais lecture and will announce plans to rewire the Treasury
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, has said it is “inconceivable” that Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, could replace Rishi Sunak as a unity candidate backed by all wings of the party.
Rees-Mogg was speaking in response to reports saying rightwingers who want Sunak to be replaced have indicated that they might support Mordaunt, a “centrist” in Tory politics, as a unity candidate to replace him. These claims attracted quite a lot of media coverage over the weekend, but it is now thought they were inspired by hostile briefing from Mordaunt’s rivals.
Penny Mordaunt is not going to become the leader of the Conservative party with a coronation. That idea is inconceivable.
In defence of Rishi Sunak, it is quite hard for a leader to be, at this stage in his leadership, significantly more popular than the party, because the two get quite closely identified and the Conservative party’s popularity fell before Rishi Sunak did, so I wouldn’t hold him personally responsible.
I think we’ve been in office for a long time, and I agree with you that the changes of leadership didn’t help. I was not in favour of removing Boris Johnson, as you may remember, but that has happened and parties need to deal with the current situation, not what might have been.
The selection process for a parliamentary candidate in Croydon East was paused by the party in November last year after complaints that data on local members provided to some candidates was inaccurate and allegations the membership database had been tampered with.
Last night the Metropolitan police confirmed they were now investigating the matter, following the conclusion of Labour’s own inquiry.
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