Prime minister faces questions from MPs after Lee Anderson’s defection and controversy over Frank Hester as poll says voters want new leader for election
Over the weekend there were various reports suggesting that Penny Mordaunt, the leader of the Commons, was being lined up by some Tories as a possible replacement for Rishi Sunak. Mordaunt did not comment publicly, but her allies said the stories were based on a hostile briefing from her rivals, and, if there ever was a Mordaunt bandwagon, it does not seem to be going anywhere.
Today it is Tom Tugendhat’s turn to be identified as a possible alternative leader. In a Telegraph story, Robert Mendick reports:
The Telegraph has been told that at one meeting held in the past few days, Ms Mordaunt remained the preferred candidate for the party to rally around but Mr Tugendhat ‘s name has also been floated.
Mr Tugendhat, who sits in the cabinet as security minister, did better than expected in the Tory leadership race following Boris Johnson’s resignation in 2022, running an energetic campaign before being knocked out in the third round.
The Conservative party, if it changes leader for the fourth time within two years, the British public will go, ‘What on earth is going on with you? You are clowns,’ and we will be booted out of office, not just politely, to an extent that we will have less than 100 MPs …
I like Tom [Tugendhat], I like all my colleagues, apart from the idiots who say some of the things like that [that there should be a leadership contest].
When I speak to lifelong Conservative voters, they tell me that the party no longer speaks for them. Time and time again, they are being failed by this appalling Conservative government.
This government has plunged our NHS into crisis. Left vulnerable people waiting hours for an ambulance, weeks to see a GP or a dentist, and months to start treatment for cancer.