Conservative leadership hopefuls fail to understand that the UK needs less Brexit, not more

Editorial: They are still ignoring the problems that Brexit is causing, and arguing about Europe at a time when there are even more pressing problems, most obviously the cost of living crisis

(Dave Brown)

Famously, Brexit was not “done” when the UK formally left the EU at 11pm on 31 January 2020. It has continued to be an endlessly damaging and divisive issue, and it is still exerting a kind of gravitational pull on the politics of the Conservative Party. It is doing them, and the country, no good.

At the moment, there are long-established Leavers, Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, at the front of the leadership race, with a born-again Leaver, Liz Truss, close behind, and the Eurosceptic Kemi Badenoch not far further back.

Sunak remains the MPs’ choice, on 101 votes thus far, but among the members Penny Mordaunt remains the great favourite, not least because she is perceived as being the most Eurosceptic. This is no accident, and Mr Sunak finds himself sneered at for having “pro-European” MPs supporting him, as if he is tainted by association with the heretics.