To ask if you a Conservative Party Member who you like to see in the final two and who would you vote for?

[BreadInCaptivity]

As the title says.

We will have a new PM and the decision on who it is will ultimately reside with CP members.

I would rather this wasn't a political thread in the sense of Conservative/Labour/LidDem/Green etc.

I'm simply very interested to understand the direction of travel here for party members and would ask that people posting respect that and don't pounce on party members who post.

For reference I'm not a party member, but my uncle is and in his constituency he's saying it's a run off between Sunak, Mordant and Badenoch in terms of local support.

Hustings on at the moment pretty boring, no-one saying anything new. I wouldn't expect too much from the televised debate tonight.

Incidentally it speaks cvlumes that this leadership contest is happening over potentially the country's hottest two days in a row next week and none of them have anything to say about climate change, except perhaps 'I'll scrap net zero'.

*volumes

You’ve read this the wrong way. They’re using it as ammunition to persuade people to vote against Mordaunt. Even they’re not stupid enough to think it’s a significant vote winner. Because it’s not and will be even less one when energy prices go up again in the autumn.

Which side is the tv debate on ?

Nope. It’s other posters going on about only doing it for votes.

I don’t care either way.

Tv debate on at the moment. Nothing interesting so far, though they all lay into Johnson when asked. Tugenhat seems the most down to earth, which figures as he stands the least chance. Truss makes Starmer look like Jack Nicholson in the charisma stakes.

Yeah, Truss was a disaster. She has me wondering whether politicians should have to pass some sort of IQ test.

Opinium ran a poll on who won the debate.

Results:
Tugendhat 36%
Sunak 25%
Mordaunt 12%
Badenoch 12%
Truss 6%

Truss is dire. Embarrassing.

How many times did Nadine Dorries vote to get Truss up to 6%?

Truss couldn’t even exit a room without help earlier today. She’s an embarrassment.

As feared (by some) Tugendhat has done a 2010 Nick Clegg tonight, to a degree.

It’ll be interesting to see how the ground shifts over the weekend.

Has the debate changed anyones views on their preferred candidate?

How many times did Nadine Dorries vote to get Truss up to 6%?

😂😂

It's both astonishing and depressing, given the situation we're in, that these candidates have such a skewed idea of their own impressiveness. They are profoundly mediocre, at best. Truss is not even that. Kemi and Penny are so light on actual facts and solid, workable policy ideas that I'm surprised they didn't float away.

Tom was clearly the best candidate.

As feared (by some) Tugendhat has done a 2010 Nick Clegg tonight, to a degree

Yep. Let's see how that shakes down.

Yes, I’m team Tom now.

I'm all for Tom. Nice to see someone with honestly/integrity.

Not that impressed with TH. When asked about NHS he spent all his response in praising them for the work they do and not enough of it answering the question. Seems a nice guy but not experienced enough for PM.

To be fair they all did that. Sunak’s response was nauseating and the face of the doctor who asked the question wasn’t looking particularly impressed either.

Sunak has been forced to lie on Sky News by saying that’s he’s ‘sure’ the current prime minister and his cabinet are working as hard as they can for the British people after Johnson didn’t bother showing up for recent COBRA meetings and Raab and Patel avoided their respective committee meetings.

Very disillusioned member here.

Kemi is a leadership contest too soon. If we were in opposition then she’d have time to grow into the role. She will be influential in who goes through and should get a good job in the new government.

Tugendhat ‘performed’ best last night. Spoke well and was clear and level-headed even if he didn’t actually say anything except Boris can’t tell the truth.

Rishi performed better than I thought he would and is clearly the master of his old Treasury brief. Definitely a safe pair of hands in terms of actually doing the job of PM from day one.

Penny was good but needed to be better. Truss campaign absolutely out to get her.

And Truss was just hideous. Robotic, devoid of emotion trying to be a caricature of Thatcher.

Strictly speaking, the new leader should be carrying on the manifesto on which the party was elected - with a big majority.

I still stand by Kemi and Tom. I don’t think years of statesmanship SHOULD be a mandate - we don’t live under dictatorship. There are layers upon layers of advisors and civil servants.

id much rather a “newbie” with a great team than a career-brown-noser.

anyway - William Pitt the younger probably didn’t have too much political experience - unless he ran the tuck shop natch.

Tom Tugendhat is a real person who shares parenting with his clever, busy wife and has no fear! He can look someone in the eye and give them a straight answer. Hoping he wins!

Turns out Johnson didn’t the cobra meeting having a party a chequers, so I guess we don’t really have a leader until the Tory members elect one.

I guess we don’t really have a leader until the Tory members elect one

No change there then. .

I noticed Kemi Badenoch nodding in agreement with Sunak a few times and occasionally looking across to him.

I wonder if there has been some sort of contact between the their camps and she will publicly endorse him after being voted out by MPs. It seems quite unlikely that she will make the final two. If the final two is Sunak v Mordaunt then she will naturally gravitate towards him as she seems to genuinely dislike Mordaunt.

As a non-Tory voter I thought Sunak won the debate based on the fact that the job on offer is Prime Minister, not leader of the Tory party. He's the only person who convinced me he could take on that role.

Tugendhat did well under no pressure but I thought that Badenoch slew him with her remark that it's easy to sit at the back of the class and keep quiet. Tory members have great regard for power and those who stand up to be counted. They would never tolerate a Corbyn figure - a perpetual malcontent on the back benches who says "I never agreed with any of this". The Labour membership were impressed by his principles whereas all the Tories I know were mystified that Labour had elected a man who spent 25 years sitting there with his thumb up his arse.