Leadership drama? Shotgun marriage with Reform? The Tory partyβs next move will define its future | Henry Hill
A reckoning is due β but thanks to voted-out contenders and internal divides, itβs not at all clear who will be leading it
I donβt know if itβs just the extent to which Conservative activists were gaslit by the polling and CCHQβs abject campaign, but the mood among those I spoke to as the night progressed was oddly chipper, given the Tory party was set to receive the worst result in its long history.
But when it looked at one point as though it might return fewer than 70 seats, and there seemed to be the faint possibility of Sir Ed Davey as leader of the opposition, the 1997 result minus 20 or so seats suddenly didnβt look so bad.
Henry Hill is deputy editor of ConservativeHome
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Continue reading...Β© Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/PA
Β© Photograph: Temilade Adelaja/PA