Tory hopefuls swerve right as race to replace Boris Johnson intensifies –

LONDON — Boris Johnson may be (almost) gone, but British politics shows little sign of shifting to the center ground anytime soon.

As the prime minister licked his wounds at his official Chequers residence following a dramatic week in which once-loyal colleagues forced him to resign as Conservative Party leader and prime minister, a crowded field of candidates seeking to replace him began courting their electorate.

So far they’re largely offering a heady mix of tax-cutting, woke-bashing and Brexit-backing policies that will be pretty familiar to followers of U.K. politics under Johnson.

Tory lawmakers looking to land the top job will first have to win over their fellow MPs, who are asked to pick the final two candidates before rank-and-file party members choose a winner from that pair. Conservative bosses meet Monday evening to thrash out the timetable for the contest, which could stretch through the summer.

Johnson himself is staying in the post while the contest plays out, but those hoping for a centrist tilt once he goes might be left waiting. A former Conservative MP said of Tory lawmakers: “I think that they were so determined to get rid of Boris … that they hadn’t really thought about: what next?”

On Europe

The Conservatives are a long way from experiencing Brexit buyers’ remorse if the leadership race is anything to go by.

Even Tom Tugendhat, a former soldier who has led parliament’s tough scrutiny of Johnson’s foreign policy since 2020 and is seen as a moderate, made clear he would continue to push a controversial post-Brexit bill seeking to override parts of the painstakingly negotiated protocol for trade rules in Northern Ireland.

It’s a plan that, under Johnson, attracted real anger from the EU, but no candidate has yet said they would put the legislation on ice.

The other great moderate hope, Jeremy Hunt — a former foreign secretary defeated by Johnson in the 2019 race to replace Theresa May — announced on Sunday he would make Esther McVey his deputy if he were to win. McVey is one of parliament’s most ardent Brexiteers, and has long riled up left-wingers.

Britain’s Attorney General Suella Braverman said she would go one further and take Britain completely out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) —  the longstanding international convention meant to shield human rights and political freedoms in Europe — in a bid to push through Britain’s paused plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda.

On tax

But Britain’s place in the world has so far been a relative sideshow as candidates fall over themselves to promise Margaret Thatcher-esque tax cuts, even as the U.K. grapples with soaring inflation.

First on the bonfire is a rise in national insurance, a tax on employment which went up by 1.25 percentage points in April in a bid to increase healthcare spending but which has angered Conservative MPs who believe it’s hitting families and businesses when they least need it.

It’s already put one candidate in a somewhat awkward spot — former Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who pushed for more National Health Service spending as the man…