Tory leadership campaign can’t escape ‘blue on blue’ attacks

David Davis is among those who have expressed concerns about the way the race has been conducted, writes Chris Stevenson

(ITV/AP/Reuters)

When Sky News were forced to cancel its debate between the Tory leadership candidates after Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss pulled out, there was a widespread sense that the there were concerns about what bruising debate encounters were doing for the image of the Conservative Party.

The BBC is set to host another debate – following previous events broadcast by Channel 4 and ITV – once the field has been whittled down to the final two, from the current three: Sunak, Truss and Penny Mordaunt. But if those in the party at large was hoping for a quieter time of things without so many "blue on blue" attacks, they were wrong, with the removal of the whip from Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, has exposed how fraught the contest still is.

Ellwood had the whip removed for missing Monday's vote of confidence in Boris Johnson's government, which was survived by 349 votes to 238, a majority of 111. Ellwood has argued he was unable to return from a meeting in Moldova, with the Tory Whips Office said that all other party MPs who could not attend the vote were successfully "paired" with an opposition MP who agrees also not to vote, thus effectively cancelling the votes out.

With Ellwood backing Mordaunt in the leadership battle – and losing the whip ruling him out of voting in the leadership contest unless there is a change of stance – Mordaunt's team would clearly not be happy and one MP told my colleagues the move smacked of “spite”. Never backwards in coming forwards, staunch Johnson ally, Nadine Dorries – no friend of Mordaunt's it seems – called any suggestion that the prime minister was trying to help Truss by removing a Mordaunt vote "wholly untrue and frankly utterly ridiculous". Strong words.

But it is clear the rest of the campaign will not be all sweetness and light. Senior Conservative David Davis, himself backing Mordaunt, told LBC on Tuesday night that this leadership campaign has been the "dirtiest" and "grubbiest" he has ever seen, saying he had written to the cabinet secretary, Simon Case, about the need for an inquiry into the "use of government resources – in some respects".

"We are electing the next prime minister of the United Kingdom," said Davis, "that ought to be done on rationality and democracy – not dirty tricks." It is a sentiment that you would hope wouldn't need to be expressed – but even without any "dirty tricks" we probably are not far from more spats.