The tory contest is no longer about leadership, let alone the national interest | thearticle

The rest of the world does not stand still for the Tory leadership contest. While the latest episode of the Boris and Jeremy show was shown on ITV, the Government faced a series of

knife-edged votes in the Commons, one of which it actually lost. Worse still, it is now making the nightmarish task of rescuing the Special Relationship even harder. It was always a bad idea

to string out the election of a new Prime Minister for some six weeks. During what feels like an eternity since Theresa May announced her resignation on June 7, the Conservative Party has

indulged itself at the expense of the national interest. In last night’s debate, Jeremy Hunt tried to force his opponent to commit himself in advance — whether he would rule out proroguing

Parliament, whether he would resign if Brexit had not taken place by October 31, whether he would keep “our man” in Washington, come what may. Fair questions, perhaps, but Boris (who will be

moving into Downing Street in a fortnight) would have been mad to answer them. The contest has now become embroiled with the question of who is tough enough to stand up to Donald Trump.

Jeremy Hunt has presumably not forgotten that he is still the Foreign Secretary, though he seems to be auditioning for a job as a political interviewer. It is hardly conducive to our

interests for Her Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to score points against the leader of our most important ally for the sake of impressing a

television audience.  Yet that is what Hunt was doing. The audience applauded spontaneously when he described as “unacceptable” Trump’s tweet about Mrs May, describing her handling of Brexit

as “foolish”. Of course the President shouldn’t make rude remarks about the Prime Minister, let alone in public, but tweeting is his _modus operandi _and he is evidently aggrieved about

what he sees as British sniping behind his back. More to the point: Britons may not like Trump, but they agree with him that Mrs May has made a hash of Brexit — especially the members of the

Conservative and Unionist Party who are voting this week. Hunt’s gallant defence of Mrs May won’t endear him to the Tory faithful. Boris, by contrast, kept his counsel. He knows that Sir

Kim Darroch is “done in Washington”, in the words of a friendly US diplomat, Lewis Lukens. American officials are  already cancelling important meetings with the embattled envoy, not to

mention the humiliation of having an invitation to a state banquet at the White House withdrawn. The affair of the leaked cables ought not to be turned into a trial of strength, but resolved

as soon as possible in the only way that it can be: by withdrawing Darroch and replacing him as soon as possible with an ambassador more suited to dealing with this administration.  Sir Kim

is by all accounts a conscientious and able public servant. He should be allowed to leave with his head held high and appropriately honoured on his return. But if he is as fine a

diplomatist as his colleagues maintain, he will not wish his personality to become a stumbling block in the restoration of a strong transatlantic partnership. Meanwhile, the lamentable

spectacle of a one-sided leadership contest drags on. By now, it has less and less to do with leadership, and more and more to do with entertainment. Boris, at least, knows this. When Hunt

accused him of sending “the wrong signal” by proposing to raise the threshold for higher rate taxpayers — who are not “rich”, but ordinary middle class professionals such as nurses and

teachers — Boris replied: “That is one of the reasons why these blue-on-blue debates are so embarrassing.” Hunt had just given a useful soundbite to Labour’s spin doctors by stating: “I have

spent my life trying to persuade people that we are not the party of the rich.” We can expect that meme to be repeated endlessly, just as Mrs May’s “nasty party” comment once was. None of

this would matter if the stakes were not so high. Jeremy Corbyn may only have a narrow path to Downing Street, but the Tories are doing their best to widen it. Britain can survive Brexit,

but Corbyn is another matter. As Sajid Javid told the Policy Exchange summer party last night, the damage that could be done by a far-Left government would take “generations” to undo.