In the rumble on the Right it's looking like a two-horse race for the Tory leadership

AMORATORIUM on personal attacks in the campaign to replace Rishi Sunak has been agreed by the Tory candidates, foreswearing in-fighting.

- Anne Mcklvoy

Expect it to last as long as a back-to-work suntan.

As the first round of the lengthy leadership race moves towards the ouster of weaker contenders like Mel “never hit my” Stride and Priti Patel (an outrider for Boris Johnson, a man too preoccupied on vaycay in Greece to be much of an in-rider), it leaves Kemi Badenoch facing off against Robert Jenrick, with a twist of James Cleverly in third place and Tom Tugendhat as the metropolitan/London Tory choice, which probably spells doom.

Badenoch v Jenrick feels like the direction of travel for good reason: both have a claim to represent the Right of the party, where the membership is situated, while having enough MP support not to look like a reprise of the Trussogeddon experience. The MP rump, who are set up in this contest’s rules as gatekeepers, have not forgotten that damage inflicted by the passions of the grassroots. On Thursday, MPs cast their votes to knock out the lowest-ranking candidates. That will still leave four in the race from next week by the latest — two too many and a month too long.