A leadership contest that fails to confront the truth about Johnson’s legacy will not produce a worthy prime minister
Every party leadership contest expresses tension between continuity and repudiation. Boris Johnson’s non-Tory critics might see little in his legacy worth preserving, but they are not the electorate in the current Conservative race.
The remaining six candidates – two having been eliminated in Wednesday’s first round – find themselves in preposterous contortions, pledging a fresh start without having the courage to articulate what was rotten before. The contest so far has been a carnival of denial, indulging Conservative ideological fetishes at the expense of sensible policy debate.
