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.

Not a party member. In NI so can't vote for any of them.

Statements like this mystify me "Zaheed Nahawi was super competent overseeing the vaccine rollout". He was just lucky that he has an extremely competent civil service around him and a massive societal desire to get this done no matter what. I doubt he made a single decision that actually impacted the rollout. Too many rumours about his finances.

Sunack is too smooth and rich. Hunt is past his time and too linked to health issues.
Truss is awful. She never comes over as that bright.

I don't know enough about the rest to comment.

For those members on here do you have any insight whether the party are looking to be more right or try and be more centric.

My understand was Johnson was considered quite centric (despite his racist comments).

Only because I suspected the party would want to become more centric to remain a strong contender in the next GE as I feel the country in general is wanting more centric ideas and the issue with Labour was it became too left.

Anyone who will support Ukraine the most, which probably makes it Tom or Liz. It is a single issue election for me.

Thank goodness you can't vote then.

Voting for someone who's made it clear they are going to destroy education further because if their skin colour is just beyond.

Really??? That's an interesting viewpoint.

Not a member, although most of my in-laws are, and coincidentally we were talking about this on the family WhatsApp last night.

FIL seemed to really rate Kemi Badenoch, which was a surprise because he’s basically a big fat racist. But I think her launch speech really cut through (to him). He said he’d vote for her or Liz Truss if they were in the final two.

FIL’s wife likes Penny Mordaunt. Didn’t expand on that much. She did say that Truss is like Thatcher but without any of the personality, intelligence or charisma (her words not mine) and would be absolutely flattened in a general election.

BIL is erring towards Rishi Sunak. He said something interesting — that Sunak (and some of the other candidates) push a lot of uncomfortable buttons for a lot of the ‘old guard’ Conservative members (the racists, basically) but that this is a good thing because it sort of forces the issue out into the open. He thinks it’ll ultimately help detoxify the party a bit. (I think that’s optimistic, and a bit patronising tbh, but that was his view.)

BIL’s wife is pro-Penny. She is a local activist (BIL’s wife, I mean) and apparently Penny plays well with people who voted for Blair and Cameron in the past.

SIL thinks Boris is going to find a way to stand to replace himself and is holding out for that. 🤷‍♂️

I am not a member

Kemi thinks state schools get too much money to spend on ‘superfluous support staff and peripheral activities’.

I can’t imagine private schools will be told this so they will be able to continue with their staffing levels and wide range of extra-curricular options for their pupils. I wonder how that will impact the outcomes of those children? So much for levelling up.

I personally hope Liz Truss gets in because I think she is so awful that the Tories will fall apart at the general election.

You only get to vote if you have paid up for a while before the contest.

Kemi, Suella are my first choices second would be Nadhim or Rishi because I feel the general population of the UK would never vote for a brown/black person as PM. And as a Labour supporter, Keir Starmer would have any of them for breakfast

Not a member, but initially saddened that all candidates appear to heavily support Rwanda. However, listening to Hunt it was clear he was hedging around it and didn’t seem to support this plan at all and would look for another one to address small boats. It was then said that some others are hedging and don’t specifically support Rwanda, though they do accept they need a plan to tackle immigration. Gave me some hope.
I presume that Rwanda appeals to party members then, and also to the electorate though I’m not convinced on that.
One thing I can’t imagine is working in government, or even as a back bencher, as a failed candidate when your colleagues/the new PM have been so awful to you/about you - I prefer it when they emphasise their own abilities.

There are lots of speculators on here and not many members, as MN is a very left leaning forum.

My friends and I are all members (decades long) Tom has no chance at all - he has never held a ministerial position, no one has ever heard of him and he didn’t vote for brexit. Grass roots are very pro brexit and this will be seen as an essential quality for most. No one has heard of Kemi.

My first choice was Ben Wallace but he has pulled out of this unpleasant bloodbath, which reflects the good character of the man.

I honestly don’t want to vote for any of them. Most likely it will be Suella Braverman, she has the grit, strength and determination to get us through what is going to be a very tough period. I will not be voting for Rishi - a backstabbing dishonest man with questionable motives.

itsgettingWeird given Boris was removed for being a centrist and not representing the conservatives enough (and not for cake or pincher as people seem to think) The move is guaranteed to lurch to the right - scrapping tax hikes and returning to traditional values. Boris thought he was bigger than the party that was the problem.

Many believe Boris is not finished yet…

Hunt - I think he is a divisive character based on being health secretary so I can’t see the party voting for him because they fear he will lose an election. That is probably unfair because I think he deserves more credit than he gets. He didn’t destroy the NHS, it is eating itself instead.

Will the electorate even remember that far back? It's been four years since he was Health Secretary, and there was a pandemic in between. I don't know about you but political life before the pandemic is a rather fuzzy memory for me.

No one trusts Hunt - he has an optics issue.

Many believe Boris is not finished yet

Goodness, that’s an awe inspiring level of delusion.

Though obviously anyone is free to post

Why, thank you! I didn’t realise the Tory grassroots had been allowed a sponsored takeover of a Mumsnet thread - thank you for the room to allow me to be me on here

honestly though @BreadInCaptivity for an organisation with two polling giants and Lord Ashcroft running regular temperature checks, you need to come on MUMSNET to try and talk to the Tory grass roots?

get a volunteer job on the phone banks at HQ if you want to know what’s going on

but I’d avoid being so patronising if I were you. Not everyone reads the full thread.

Not a party member, but live in a very safe Conservative seat. I also know several party members (some of them know the local MP too) and have been discussing this with them recently with the upcoming leadership election.

Tom T seems to be the preferred candidate here with Kemi rated quite highly too. Rishi seen as sneaky and devious, not to be trusted and unpopular with voters especially self employed and business owners who had no help during the pandemic and lockdown. Splashing the cash was all very well and good but lots left behind and some angry voters out there.

Province that's interesting, I actually find MN relatively right-leaning — increasingly so, these days — but I guess perceptions vary.

Based on my in-laws I think you're right about Tom Tugendhat. Although he's pulled well so far; better than I'd initially expected. I wonder if there's a sense that he could appeal to that 'socially liberal, economically conservative' coalition of voters that Blair and Cameron managed to knit together.

That said, I think a lot of the more centrist Tory preference is landing on Mordaunt over Tugendhat.

The Brexit one is interesting. I agree that a lot of the party base are strongly pro-Brexit, but is there not also a sense coming through now that Brexit has been done, is irreversible, and therefore it matters less what someone's stance on the referendum vote was six years ago? My FIL, who has been the most rigid hard Brexiter you could imagine, is in a 'moving forward' phase now and he's the bellwether for the mood of the Conservative-voting nation in our family!

I have a vote and it will not be going to a white male. I am baffled by the Tom Tugendhat fans.

My decision will be made once I know who are in the final two. I will be totally fine if it is Rishi, but equally I won’t be sad if he doesn’t make it.

I will be gutted if we get another white man when the candidates are so similar.

I'm less concerned about his wife's inherited wealth. I think the thing which makes him out of touch is the fact that he's yet another one who went to a top public school.

Hunt and Tugendhat likewise went to two of the "Great Nine" public schools

KB on the other hand did her A levels at an FE college, while working in a local McDonald's. That's someone who is much closer to earth.

Wouldn’t vote Tory anyway so it’s academic, but I think mourdant or truss would give Labour the most problems. Badenoch is a small stage culture warrior, anathema to anyone who wouldn’t vote for the party regardless.

*small state

“Boris was removed for being a centrist”

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

Not a member but it should be just about anyone other than Rishi.

Brexit isn’t completed - and actually very far from being capitalised so it most definitely still matters.
14 million voters were banking on it - so we have to deliver that properly … the rest is much of a muchness. None have the imagination, the new ideas and charisma required. Whoever it is - they are likely to be replaced quite quickly unless they turn out to be incredible.