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Magazine Opinions Conservative party

A self-selecting, card-carrying cadre could soon pick a PM—for the first time ever

As the May premiership moves from Brexit crisis to potential meltdown, it's time to pay attention to the unprecedented way in which her successor will be picked

By Tom Clark  
October 6, 2017

Andrea Leadsom: the PM we could have won. Photo: TOM NICHOLSON/LNP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Boris Johnson’s pre-conference posturing over his “personal vision” for Brexit looked shambling to the country. He pre-empted the prime minister’s speech in Florence by setting his own criteria for the negotiations in a 4,000-word Telegraph essay, ran into resentment and appeared to back down—before resurfacing on the eve of the Tory get-together in Manchester muttering about red lines again. An understandably annoyed Theresa May declined to be drawn on his future, and Britain saw its foreign secretary exposed…

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Tom Clark

Tom Clark is editor of Prospect

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