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A rush to represent the status quo
NICK WRIGHT reviews the motivations and machinations of the current crop of Tories aiming for the top — and as the herd thins, finds little of substance dividing them
FINAL STRETCH: With Penny Mordaunt (left) knocked out yesterday, only Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss now remain in the race

WHEN candidates for the leadership of the Tory Party — and at this moment the office of prime minister — argue that their opponent backs “socialist” policies we have to wonder if we have entered an alternative universe in which the normal rules of political gravity no longer apply.

It is true that the Conservative Party exists mostly in a hermetically sealed ideological bubble in which the issues that animate the great majority of people only appear as relevant if they threaten the party’s grip on power.

A clear illustration of this principle is the result of a poll conducted among the Tory faithful this week by Rupert Murdoch’s Times newspaper which showed that intervention to prevent climate change is at the very bottom of their priorities.

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