James Cleverley - everyone’s favourite number two

Further to yesterday’s post, ConservativeHome has published the results of its first post-conference leadership poll.

Interestingly, James Cleverly has overtaken Robert Jenrick and is currently in second place, just as he was in Tories Got Talent, as I described here.

Kemi Badenoch is still top, among ConHome readers, but I do wonder whether enough Tory MPs have the balls to vote for her, putting her in the final two to face the membership vote.

It would be a travesty, frankly, if she was eliminated before then, but the fact that a substantial number of Conservative MPs are voting for Tom Tugendhat speaks volumes, so nothing would surprise me.

In the meantime James Cleverley (everyone’s favourite number two) continues to sneak up on the inside rail, just as Jim Hacker did in Yes, Minister.

I know that was for leader of the party and therefore prime minister. Nevertheless, could something similar happen here?

See: Cleverly overtakes Jenrick in our post-conference leadership survey (ConHome)