This was possibly closer than some people expected.
About 57% of valid votes cast were for Liz Truss. Turnout was pretty high too, with 82.6% of members casting a vote, with 654 rejected, possibly spoiled or filled out incorrectly.
For comparison, Boris Johnson won 66.4% of the vote in 2019, David Cameron 67.6% in 2005 and Iain Duncan Smith 60.7% in 2001.
Not a landslide, then … nearly half the voters showed common sense rather than abject devotion …
I feel that maybe we’re being too pessimistic. After all, it won’t be for long and in a couple of months we’ll be in cryogenic sleep as we can’t afford to turn on the heating, so we’ll probably not notice too much of it anyway.
With a bold vision for the country and a bold vision for our economy, which consists entirely of me saying the words ‘bold’ and ‘vision’ repeatedly.
I stand before you with adjectives and the sort of business-speak terms you hear Lord Sugar say on the Apprentice, and I will keep repeating them until you realise that I am a serious person who sounds impressive.
On the campaign trail people have often asked me ‘what do you really stand for Liz?’ – to which my answer is: ‘tell me what you believe in and then I will tell you the same thing back again in slightly different words.’ I am a woman of principles. Other people’s principles. And if you don’t like them, just tell me and I’ll change them to what you think instead.
There’s more of the same, which, of course, is not to be taken seriously …