Next British PM

I don't think they'll be allowed a stitch up like that again.

BTW shortly after that leadership contest ended Andrea Leadsome was down in Kerry walking Mt Brandon

This appears to be the final shortlist :

Sunak, Mordaunt, Tugendhat, Truss, Hunt, Braverman (won't be confirmed until 6pm though).

A shortlist of eight confirmed : Badenoch, Braverman, Hunt, Mordaunt, Sunak, Truss, Tugendhat, Zahawi

Well, my pennies worth is on Penny... She has Davis in her corner and that is an indicator of things.

Her family is from Wexford.

She may be every bit the ardent Brexiter that Johnson or JRM are, but I suspect she'll be more pragmatic. She doesn't have any particular connection with the 6 Counties or its history, so the Protocol may bother her less.

But then, it does matter more what the people who back her for the big job want in return, rather than her own instincts on any particular matter. Davis may feel he owes Brussels a bloody nose, after he was repeatedly humiliated as Brexit Secretary.

I'm surprised Javid didn't receive enough backing to make it through the first clearout. Perhaps his Lannigan's ball approach to backing Boris made too many people view him as a snake.

If she gets to the final two she will probably win .

Sunak looking at the betting and amount of MPS supporting him is going to cruise into the final 2 but that is when its a problem, he is doing poorly in head to heads against pretty much everyone. Their is an obvious "anyone but sunak" wing of the party who for now have got behind truss, they will support whoever is final 2 v Rishi.

At the moment it seems like Truss and Penny are in a fight for the 2nd spot when it comes to the members vote with Tugendhat most likely of the rest.

Could there be skullduggery by the Sunak Squad to ensure she doesn't?

And if she doesn't would there be a big backlash from the membership?

Somehow Suella braverman snuck in.

I see where our favourite Lord, David Frost has stuck the boot into Penny Mordaunt, alleging that she was absent during a lot of the crunch negotiations with the EU.

Whereas of course he was so on top of the detail that he allowed through a protocol that the British government are trying to wriggle out of.

A Catholic can become PM, just not monarch.

That shows they are worried about her if they are using that tactic. Isn’t Liz truss twenty behind Mordaunt ?

Britain doesn't have a constitution. They go by precedent and make new ones up when they need to.

Many UK Prime Ministers haven't been members of the Church of England anyway.

Some analysts think Truss is by no means out of it. Difficult to predict where a lot of eliminated votes will go and it looks like the different camps are indeed up to all sorts - Mordaunt being favourite is more based on the assumption that she will make the last two, but this is not guaranteed.

The ordinary gammon Tory membership would never elect Kemi Badenoch.

Nor Rishi Sunak, for more reasons than his perceived betrayal of Johnson.

If it comes down to anyone versus Sunak, he loses. If it comes down to Mordaunt v Truss, its more difficult to call among the Membership.

Truss is a Johnson loyalist (ish), and experienced, but her prior Remainer status makes her untrustworthy.

Mordaunt is a dyed in the wool Brexiter, but she is socially liberal and relatively inexperienced and by all accounts woolly on detail. She also has military pragmatism in her blood as well as Irish Catholic heritage, which may see her as dangerous on the Protocol Bill. But of course, that may not cost ordinary Tory Party members a thought, because let's face it, Englishmen of a nationalist persuasion, couldn't give a f*** about Northern Ireland. In fact, they'd bite your hand off tomorrow to exchange Irish Unity for a clean, complete and finalised Brexit.

To be fair Kemi has done well in polls on conservativehome and the telegraph which is a fair representation of the members especially conservativehome so she'd have a chance in the final two but it seems unlikely she will reach that stage. I'd be curious to see what odds she will be if tories lose next election and whoever wins this contest will likely be binned.

Sunak should get in the final two, Penny fav to join him , but I assume Truss will be pulling lots of strings to try and squeeze in also.

Never heard of this constitution.

Well codified means in one document like ours is. There’s stuff in writing but it’s not under one roof as it were. There is a lot of things done on tradition and stuff that just always happened.