He may be the frontrunner, but the former foreign secretary will surely lose his allure. Look out for the unexpected
Something important and wholly without precedent is happening in plain sight in British politics – but not enough attention is being paid to it. The something is that never before has a new British prime minister been chosen by the grassroots members of the ruling political party. Such a thing might have happened in 2007, when Tony Blair resigned, but Gordon Brown was chosen unopposed. It nearly happened in 2016, after David Cameron stepped down, but in the end the other candidates stood aside in favour of Theresa May.
Now it’s the third time it could happen, and this one is almost certain to be different. There are already 11 candidates in the field to succeed May. Five more are said to be weighing whether to join. Many will fall at the first and subsequent hurdles in June, when Tory MPs begin a series of elimination votes in Westminster. But it would be a surprise if this contest does not go all the way to a two-person runoff among the party members in July. If it does, that will be a historic first – a national leader chosen by a party membership, not by parliamentarians or the wider public.
Continue reading...from The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Mfks1i
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