Naomi Smith chats to Conservative Home's Henry Hill about every aspect of the Tory leadership contest, who are the runners, who are the riders, who doesn't know if they're afoot or horseback, and what is at stake. A free-roaming and illuminating conversation - and a perfect illustration of our mission here at QRHQ, to build understanding.

Henry on the length of the contest: “I think Conservatives may regret not having a new leader and shadow cabinet in place for [the budget]. And then, just three days after their new leader is announced, we’re going to have the US Presidential election. And that’s going to be like a news nuke.”

On Jeremy Hunt staying on as Shadow Chancellor: “[Jeremy Hunt] just lost the election. I don’t think he is a credible message-carrier with the voters for criticising Rachel Reeves’ agenda.”

On morale in the party: “The thing I think a lot of Tories don’t quite realise yet is how hard life in opposition is. Because a huge share of Tory MPs have entered Parliament at or since the 2010 election.”

On what the task of the next leader is: “Both sides of the current conservative classic division are out of date. One of them is stuck in 1975. The other one, the sort of self-consciously modernising one, is stuck in 2005, when Cameron became leader. Neither of them seems to be oriented towards the problems of 2025.”

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You can find Henry's Conservative Home pieces here.

And his substack musings here.

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