That turned out to be a copy of the speech he planned to make announcing his defection, which was leaked to the Conservative leader by someone in Jenrick’s office.
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In it, he said: “The Tories and Labour have forfeited the right to govern the United Kingdom. And the mantle now passes to Reform.”
It also emerged that Jenrick first held talks with Reform leader Nigel Farage last September, and since then has repeatedly denied he had any plans to defect to the right-wing party.
Labour chair Anna Turley said: “Robert Jenrick says the Tories broke Britain. Now he wants to do the same again with Farage’s Reform.
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“He’s a shameless chancer who, like the other failed Tories who have scuttled off to Reform, are more interested in their careers than the country.
“With Jenrick in tow, Reform clearly wants to deliver the same chaos and decline he did while in government.”
After he was unveiled at a Westminster press conference by Farage, Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “This was a conman introducing a charlatan. Robert Jenrick has an industrial-grade brass neck to be complaining about how broken Britain is, when it was him and his Conservative cronies who did such damage to our country and to trust and faith in politics.
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“Reform and the Conservatives are two sides of the same coin. Right across the country it is the Liberal Democrats who are leading the fight to defeat them.”
Jenrick used the press conference to launch an astonishing personal attack on two of his former Tory shadow cabinet colleagues.
He said shadow chancellor Mel Stride “was the cabinet minister who oversaw the explosion of the welfare bill” when he was work and pensions secretary.
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And he said shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel had “created the migration system that enabled five million migrants to come here”.
However, he praised both of them on X when he was still in the Tory Party.
A senior party source told HuffPost UK: “Knifing two colleagues like that is spectacularly bad form. I hope they duff him up in the lobby next week.”
In his keynote speech at the Tory conference in Manchester, Jenrick joked about her ongoing unpopularity with voters.
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Truss lasted just 49 days in Downing Street after her mini-Budget crashed the economy and sent mortgage rates soaring.
Jenrick drew a comparison between his party’s former leader and two Tories who were quickly booted out of the Big Brother house.
He said: ”[Former Conservative MP] Sir Michael Fabricant went on the Big Brother house. He lasted four days.
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“Last week, one of our party’s most energetic campaigners, Emily Hewertson, entered the Big Brother house. She lasted 11 hours. She didn’t even get to spend the night.
“And now I’ve heard that a third Tory blonde is in negotiations to enter the Big Brother house – Liz Truss. But the negotiations have broken down. She’s asking to be paid by the minute.”
As the audience laughed at their former leader’s expense, Jenrick said: “Too soon, perhaps. Too soon.”
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His jibe came after he told the conference earlier this week that the mini-Budget had been “cack-handed and un-conservative”.
“There were big mistakes from that period,” Jenrick said. “We have to be honest about that, and in doing so, we can begin to rebuild the public’s trust.”
Truss hit back on X: “Rob is a self-styled critic of the Blairite establishment but has completely failed to take on their false narrative about 2022 or mention the role of the Bank of England.
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“Until the Conservative Party is honest about what happened in 2022, they are destined to remain at 16 per cent in the polls.”
Robert Jenrick has been accused of “playing hero” after he posted a video of himself tackling fare-dodgers on the Tube.
The shadow justice secretary is seen at one point being confronted by a man who claimed to be carrying a knife.
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Jenrick said lawbreaking was now “out of control” in the capital, and accused London mayor Sadiq Khan of “driving a proud city into the ground”.
His minute-long video, posted on X, shows him following several Underground-users who had forced their way through the ticket barriers.
Jenrick is told to “fuck off” by one man after he tells him to go back and pay for his journey. The man then warns him that he has a knife.
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The MP, who lost out to Kemi Badenoch in the race to be Tory leader last year, says one in 25 Tube-users do not pay for their journeys.
“It’s also just annoying watching so many people break the law and get away with it – at least most of the time,” Jenrick says.
He is then shown handing one of the alleged fare-dodgers over to security staff.
The Tory frontbencher says: “It’s the same with bike theft, phone theft, tool theft, shoplifting, drugs in town centres, weird Turkish barber shops. It’s all chipping away at society.
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“The state needs to reassert itself and go after lawbreakers.”
But he was criticised by Maryam Eslamdoust, general secretary of the TSSA union, which represents Tube staff.
She said: “We’ve long said that fare evasion should be tackled through proper investment in staffing and enforcement and not by MPs playing hero on the commute.
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“What we need is a fully funded British Transport Police, more London Underground revenue control teams, and a serious plan to tackle the causes of fare evasion.
“What we don’t need are performative interventions laced with bizarre and offensive commentary.”
Siwan Hayward, Transport for London’s (TfL) director of security, policing and enforcement, said: “The overwhelming majority of our customers pay the correct fare, however there is a minority who do attempt to travel without a valid ticket which is a criminal offence.
“Fare evasion is unacceptable. That is why we are strengthening our capability to deter and detect fare evaders, including expanding our team of professional investigators to target the most prolific fare evaders across the network.”
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It also emerged that Jenrick had broken TfL rules by failing to get permission for filming on the Underground.
He said: “I’ll await my summons from TfL … unlike the fare dodgers.”
She received the support of 53,806 Tory members, compared to Jenrick’s 41,388 – a winning margin of more than 12,000 votes.
Her win marks the end of the prolonged four-month race to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the opposition.
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She also becomes the first black leader of a major British political party.
Badenoch served as the business and trade secretary in the last government and has been the shadow housing secretary since the Tories were kicked out of Downing Street.
She said the “huge job” ahead involves “the people we want to bring back to the Conservative Party”.
Badenoch said: “This is not just about the Conservative Party, it is about the people we want to bring back to the Conservative Party, it is about the people we need to bring into the Conservative Party.
“It is about what the Conservative Party needs to be over the next five, 10 and 20 years.
“Our party is critical to the success of our country, but to be heard we have to be honest – honest about the fact that we made mistakes, honest about the fact that we let standards slip.
“The time has come to tell the truth. The time has come to tell the truth, to stand up for our principles, to plan for our future, to reset our politics and our thinking, and to give our party, and our country, the new start that they deserve.
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“It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew.”
The MP for North West Essex previously raised eyebrows by claiming she is “very, very wary” of saying she wants to become the next prime minister because the job “changes your life forever”.
Badenoch has also faced criticism for several controversies throughout her leadership campaign.
She bizarrely claimed that she had become working class at 16 after getting a job at McDonald’s.
On another occasion, Badenoch suggested not all “cultures are equally valid”.
During the Conservative conference, she also appeared to say that maternity pay is “excessive” before being forced to insist she meant the burden of regulation on business.
Badenoch is expected to start assembling her shadow cabinet straight away, but it will not include former leadership candidate James Cleverly, who said he would be returning to the backbenches.
Former ministers Tom Tugendhat, Mel Stride and Priti Patel were all kicked out earlier in the contest having failed to secure enough votes from fellow Conservative MPs.
Tory chairman Richard Fuller said: “On behalf of the whole Conservative Party I’d like to congratulate Kemi Badenoch on being elected as our new leader.
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“Over the course of the leadership contest we have seen six strong, credible candidates who have spent their time travelling around the country meeting our excellent party members.
“I would like to thank all the candidates for their conduct and commitment during the leadership contest and the team at CCHQ for their hard work throughout.
“With Kemi Badenoch in place as our new leader now is the time for the whole Party to unite and take the fight to Labour, the Liberal Democrats, SNP and Reform.”
Tory leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick just claimed his rival Kemi Badenoch made a “mistake” when she criticised him – only to then hit out at her, too.
Jenrick and Badenoch are the only two candidates left in the race to replace Rishi Sunak as party leader.
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Tory members have to cast their votes by the end of this month and the official winner will be announced on November 2.
On Sunday, Badenoch took a swipe at Jenrick by telling The Telegraph: “Integrity matters … with me you’d have a leader where there’s no scandal. I was never sacked for anything, I didn’t have to resign in disgrace or, you know, because there was a whiff of impropriety.”
This is presumably a reference to Jenrick’s involvement in a 2020 planning dispute when he was housing secretary under Boris Johnson, a role which he was later sacked from in a reshuffle.
Speaking to Times Radio on Monday morning, Jenrick criticised Badenoch for speaking “ill” of her rival.
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“I think it was a mistake by Kemi,” he said, alleging he thinks Tory members are “sick of the drama”.
He continued: “They want to end all these excuses. They want to stop the squabbling and the backbiting. They want the party to unite and to be a team. That is what I want to do.”
He added: “So I am not going to speak ill of fellow Conservatives. I think if we do that, that will be the end of the Conservative Party.”
But Jenrick then decided to dish out an insult of his own, adding: “If my rival, you know, starts to deal with personal insults, that is because she doesn’t really have any policies to talk about.
“And I want to be talking about policies. That is what this debate should be about.”
The former minister then said: “Let’s not go down the rabbit hole of drama and infighting. We’ve had way too much, that’s not my way, that’s not how I would conduct myself if I’m leader of the party.”
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He claimed ultimately they are “grown ups,” and recalled how the Conservative Party is “the world’s oldest political party”.
He said: “Hitherto, it’s most successful. It is not a Twitter account.”
The Tories suffered a noteworthy defeat in July’s general election, losing the highest number of seats of any UK party in history (251), meaning they now have just 121 representatives in parliament.
The very drawn-out Conservative Party leadership contest is almost over – but who will be the victor?
The party members have until October 31 to cast their votes, and, having stayed on as a rather reticent caretaker leader for almost four months, Rishi Sunak will finally be able to hand over the reins of the party on November 2.
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Former home secretary James Cleverly, perceived as a moderate within the party, was unexpectedly ousted in the last round of the MPs’ ballots earlier this month.
The final two candidates are now right-wing, former ministers, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, both of whom are known for regularly causing a stir.
So, as a new era looms for the beleaguered Conservative Party, here’s a look at the most eye-catching moments from the last leadership hopefuls standing during a rather chaotic contest…
Kemi Badenoch
1. Her row with David Tennant
Badenoch launched her leadership bid by reminding Tory members how actor David Tennant had called for her to “shut up” over her belief on the trans community earlier this year.
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In a video promoting her plan to lead the Conservatives, Badenoch said: “No, I will not shut up.
“When you have that kind of cultural establishment trying to keep Conservatives down, you need someone like me, who is not afraid of Doctor Who or whoever, and who is going to take the fight to them and not let them try and keep us down.
“That’s not going to happen with me.”
2. Claiming maternity pay is “excessive”
The Tory leadership hopeful sparked a row at the Conservative Party conference when she told Times Radio: “Maternity pay varies depending on who you work for, but it is a function, where it’s statutory maternity pay. It is a function of tax.
“Tax comes from people who are working. We’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This in my view is excessive.”
She later had to issue a “clarification” saying she was actually talking about “the burden of regulation on businesses”.
3. Alleging people are “too scared” to start businesses
Badenoch doubled down on her concerns over business during the conference.
At a fringe event, recalling how a constituent explained she had to close her business because she could not afford wages or maternity pay, Badenoch claimed: “We are overburdening businesses.
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“We are overburdening them with regulation, with tax. People aren’t starting businesses any more because they’re too scared.”
4. Suggesting young Tories get marked down at university because of politics
While at the conference, Badenoch said “socialism” has returned to the UK now Labour are in power.
She said young Conservatives are now “afraid to share their politics with other students, because they will be attacked, that they are marked down by lecturers because of their beliefs”.
5. Claiming a tenth of civil servants should be “in prison”
Again, while speaking to the party faithful, Badenoch said 10% of civil servants are “absolutely magnificent”.
But she added: “There’s about 5 to 10% of them who are very, very bad – you know, should be in prison bad – leaking official secrets, undermining their ministers, agitating – I have some of it in my department – usually union led.”
The audience laughed after she spoke, suggesting it may have been a joke.
6. Suggesting not all “cultures are equally valid”
Badenoch wrote an article for the Sunday Telegraph saying “we cannot be naive and assume […] all cultures are equally valid” as “they are not”.
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She added: “I am struck, for example, by the number of recent immigrants to the UK who hate Israel.”
7. Huge fan of Elon Musk
Badenoch revealed she is a supporter of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
She said: “I think Elon Musk has been a fantastic thing for freedom of speech. I will hold my hand up and say, I’m a huge fan of Elon Musk.”
Her comments came weeks after the X CEO suggested “civil war was inevitable” in the UK during the far-right riots and repeated the right-wing conspiracy theory of two-tier policing.
8. A controversial take on class
Speaking on Christopher Hope’s Political Podcast, Badenoch claimed: “I grew up in a middle class family, but I became working class when I was 16, working in McDonald’s.”
9. “I don’t make gaffes”
Shortly after that remark about class, Badenoch told the podcast: “I never have gaffes, or apologising for something that I said, [saying] ‘oh that’s not what I meant,’ I never have to clarify, because I think very carefully about what I say.”
10. Endorsing a pamphlet “stigmatising” autism
Badenoch wrote the foreword for the ‘Conservatism in Crisis’ report which said an autism diagnosis “offers economic advantages and protections”.
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She claimed “mental health has become something that society, schools and employers have to work around”.
Conservative leadership candidates Kemi Badenoch, from left, Robert Jenrick
via Associated Press
Robert Jenrick
1. A strong interest in Thatcher
The Tory leadership hopeful told the Conservative Party conference he gave his daughter “Thatcher” as a middle name in a reference to the late prime minister.
Jenrick told The Sunday Times that he wonders if the head of the NHS in England, Amanda Pritchard, is “the best person Britain has to run the NHS”.
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He said: “It’s nothing personal against her. I know she’s very professional. But I do think it’s time for someone new, who gets that NHS productivity has to improve.”
3. His remarks on the SAS
As part of his claim about the ways the ECHR restricts the UK, Jenrick used footage of an SAS soldier, who has since died, in northern Afghanistan in around 2002 in one of his campaign videos.
Jenrick sparked backlash when he claimed: “Our special forces are killing rather than capturing terrorists because our lawyers tell us that if they are caught, the European court will set them free.”
4. Wearing a ‘Hamas are terrorists’ hoodie
Jenrick was pictured wearing a “Hamas are terrorists” hoodie at a Conservative Friends of Israel meeting.
5. UK has to leave the ECHR or the Tories ‘die’
The former immigration minister suggested the UK had to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), or die, because of the way it restricts how immigration is tackled.
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He said: “This is more than just ‘leave or amend’: frankly, our party doesn’t have a future unless we take a stand and fix this problem. It’s leave or die for our party – I’m for leave.”
6. Installing the Star of David at UK ports
Jenrick told a fringe event at the Tory conference: “A small thing that I fought for when I was the immigration minister was to ensure that every Israeli citizen could enter our country through the e-gate, through the easy access.
“So that at every airport and point of entry to our great country there is the Star of David there as a symbol that we support Israel, we stand with Israel.”
7. Support for Trump
“If I were an American citizen, I would be voting for Donald Trump,” he said in August.
However he watered these comments down a bit later, saying he does not agree with everything the Republican candidate says and “respects” Kamala Harris.
8. Promoting “English identity”
In an article for the Daily Mail, Jenrick wrote: “The combination of unprecedented migration alongside the dismantling of our national culture, non-integrating multiculturalism and the denigration of our identity has presented huge problems.”
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He added: “It has had a clear impact on our culture, customs and cohesion. Taken together, the attitudes and policies of our metropolitan establishment have weakened English identity. They have put the very idea of England at risk.”
However, he was unable to explain exactly what he meant when pressed over his wording on Sky News.
9. Claiming anyone shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ in the street should be arrested
Speaking to Sky News about the August riots, Jenrick said: “I have been very critical of the police in the past, particularly around the attitude of some police forces to the protests since October 7 [Hamas’ attack on Israel.]
“I thought it was quite wrong somebody could shout Allahu Akbar on the streets of London and not be immediately arrested, or project genocidal chants onto Big Ben, and that person not be immediately arrested.”
He later defended himself, saying he was talking about “aggressive chanting” of the phrase.
10. Forgetting what he did while Home Office minister
Jenrick claimed the current PM Keir Starmer “signed us up to eight more years of uncontrolled levels of illegal migrants” after the government invited companies to manage the Western Jet Foil and Manston facilities.
Actually, the leadership hopeful signed off on those contracts himself when he was the immigration minister.
The long race to replace Rishi Sunak as the Conservative Party leader is now in its final round and party members have until the end of the month to vote for one of the two remaining candidates.
But, according to Curtice, they are both “unknown quantities” for most of the public.
Indeed, an Ipsos UK poll from August found 62% of Brits surveyed were not interested in following who would replace Sunak.
He added that they do not appear to understand why the Tories performed so poorly in July, and so are unlikely to try and take the steps “needed for their party to regain voters’ trust”.
He said: “Both candidates appear to believe the fault lies in a failure of the last government to be true to Conservative values.”
But, Curtice noted, that it’s clear from the polls the “party’s precipitous fall from grace was not occasioned by a failure to be truly Conservative” but by Partygate and Liz Truss’s mini-Budget.
And, according to the pollster, neither of them are strong enough to even win back all of the votes the Tories lost to far-right group Reform in July.
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He added: “Still, as largely unknown quantities, perhaps either Ms Badenoch or Mr Jenrick will prove able to surprise us – though in order to do so, they are both certainly going to have to reveal a wider range of political talents than they have so far.”
The Tories currently have just 121 seats in parliament, the lowest total ever recorded in the party’s history.
Tory rivals Kemi Badenoch and James Cleverly are now in a “fight to the death” to get through to the final run-off in the Conservative leadership race, senior MPs believe.
Tom Tugendhat is widely expected to be the next candidate to drop out of the race when the next ballot of MPs takes place a week from now.
That would leave leadership hopefulsBadenoch and Cleverly battling it out for the right to go head-to-head with Jenrick in the final phase of the campaign, in which party members will decide who replaces Rishi Sunak as leader.
Cleverly is seen as the candidate with the wind in his sails at the end of the Tories’ annual conference in Birmingham.
His set-piece speech, in which he urged the party to “be more normal” and pledged to put a smile back on its face, went down well in the hall.
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The former home secretary has also succeeded in avoiding any controversy – unlike Badenoch.
A source on his campaign said: “The momentum is well and truly with James. He has always loved conference and the last few days have seen him thrive.”
Conservative leadership candidates Kemi Badenoch, from left, Robert Jenrick, James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat stand on the podium during the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
via Associated Press
One veteran MP said: “Kemi just reaffirmed people’s worst fears that if she was leader there would be a gaffe a day. All the rest of us would then have to spend all our time having to explain what she meant.
“Her campaign has appeared chaotic and she hasn’t done as much flesh-pressing as the others. Some colleagues were saying they had seen the other candidates three or four times but only seen her once, which plays into concerns about her work ethic.”
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And while her final speech to the conference gained pass marks, one former minister said it wasn’t the “humdinger” she needed to overtake Jenrick.
“It went down very well in the hall, and the content was good, even if the delivery wasn’t great,” the MP said.
However, a Badenoch campaign source told HuffPost UK they were “very happy” with how the week has gone.
“She was the only candidate anyone was talking about all week, proving that she is the only candidate with the star quality to cut through in opposition,” the source said.
“The membership loved her. Polls of members released during the conference put her ahead. The speech is winning plaudits. And two big hitters in David Davis and Helen Grant came out and endorsed her shortly after she’d finished speaking.”
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While Cleverly’s campaign has undoubtedly been buoyed by the last few days, party insiders believe he still needs to persuade MPs who had been planning to vote for Badenoch to switch to him if he is to have any chance of winning.
One undecided MP said: “James showed that he’s an experienced pro and would able to hit the ground running if he wins. He also answered some of the doubts about whether he really wants it.
“But has been at the heart of everything for last five years, so can he credibly claim that he will deliver change as leader? That’s his challenge now, because he’s in a fight to the death with Kemi for the second slot on the ballot.”
A Tory leadership candidate has revealed the bizarre middle name he gave his daughter as a tribute to a former prime minister.
Robert Jenrick admitted the youngster’s middle name is Thatcher because she was born in 2013, the same year her famous namesake died.
“I thought it was a good way of reminding her of a great prime minister,” he told a question and answer session at the Tory conference in Birmingham.
Margaret Thatcher was prime minister between 1979 and 1990, winning three general elections along the way.
Jenrick is currently the bookies’ favourite to succeed Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party leader.
However, he has been at the centre of a major row after claiming in a campaign video that the SAS kill terrorists rather than capturing them because they could be released by the European Court of Human Rights.
He has been condemned by his leadership rivals James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, both of whom served in the Army before entering politics.
Appearing on stage after Jenrick this afternoon, Cleverly said: “I’ve never accused the British armed forces of murdering anybody…anyone who makes that assertion better back it up.”
Maybe the Conservatives don’t really need a new leader, after all.
Remarkably, the party has actually gained seven local council seats in the past five weeks after suffering a landslide general election defeat less than three months ago.
That is despite the fact that, for all intents and purposes, the Tories are effectively leaderless at the moment.
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Rishi Sunak is still nominally in charge. But even those close to him concede that he mentally checked out of the job on the morning of July 5.
Indeed, the former PM will hardly be seen at the Conservatives’ annual conference in Birmingham, which kicks off on Sunday. He will address a members-only reception that evening, and is expected to play no further part in the proceedings.
The Conservatives’ poll ratings have recently ticked up slightly, although this has more to do with the Labour government’s ongoing woes than a sudden wave of affection for the Tories.
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Polling by Savanta, seen by HuffPost UK, confirms that the general public have stopped paying attention to the party.
Given a choice of who would make the best opposition leader, Sunak, Nigel Farage or Ed Davey, the most popular answer was “don’t know”.
Emma Levin, associate director at Savanta, said: “There is clearly a big gap in British politics for an opposition politician to properly take Keir Starmer to task. But that hasn’t happened yet.”
One former Tory cabinet member, who is yet to decide who to back in the leadership race, told HuffPost UK that the conference is an opportunity to show the public that the party still exists.
“Labour being so shit has just overwhelmed everything,” he said. “I’m genuinely surprised that they’re making a lot of very basic mistakes.
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“People have forgotten all about Rishi Sunak. It has all been about Labour and how bad they’ve been.”
The MP said he hoped that one of the four remaining candidates may emulate David Cameron, who used the party conference in 2005 to destroy his more-favoured rival, David Davis.
“This year’s conference is about bringing the leadership contest back to centre stage, and highlighting what the differences are between the contenders.
“We’ll be looking to see how they perform, whether they commit any gaffes and whether any of them can do a Cameron-esque performance that blows everyone else away.”
Under the rules of the contest, the remaining four will be whittled down to three and then two by a couple of ballots of Tory MPs when Westminster returns the week after next. It will then be up to the party’s members to decide the winner, who will be announced on November 2.
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The contenders: clockwise from top left, Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick, Tom Tugendhat and James Cleverly
Former immigration minister Jenrick is now the bookies’ favourite, overtaking the previous frontrunner Badenoch.
One of his supporters said: “There is a lot of momentum behind Robert’s campaign, but he’s not taking anything for granted, he’s going to keep working hard to persuade MPs to support his positive case for change.
“He’s the only candidate who can win back voters on the left and right with his focus on the big issues and his serious, credible answers on the key challenges of the day, such as immigration, NHS reform and growing our economy.”
But a Badenoch campaign source insisted she was very much still in the race.
He said: “Kemi has been touring the country solidly for the past few months, going from Conservative association to Conservative association and getting an amazing reception from the members.
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“All the independent polling puts her way out ahead with our membership. This conference is a chance to show MPs she is the members’ choice – the one with the star quality to cut through as a leader of the opposition and take the fight to Labour.”
Cleverly, a former party chairman, foreign secretary and home secretary, is seen by many as the dark horse of the contest, with even a senior figure in a rival campaign admitting he is “under-priced” by the bookies.
A source on his campaign described the conference as “a home fixture”, given his popularity with the party’s rank-and-file.
“He is a party man who loves campaigning and engaging with the activists and members – and he gets a consistently good reception from them wherever he goes, mainly because he knows half of them,” the source said.
“His approach is to engage as much as possible with the members, to set out his pitch as the unity candidate and the most experienced candidate who is ready to hit the ground running from day one as leader.”
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It is barely 12 weeks since the Tories were reduced to just 121 MPs in the House of Commons, a statistical irrelevance when compared to Labour’s 411 and fewer than 50 seats ahead of the Lib Dems.
Whoever wins the leadership race faces a monumental task in trying to return the party to power at the next election.
Nevertheless, there remains a flicker of optimism among the party that the new Labour government’s struggles are not just a blip, but a sign that their seemingly-impregnable Commons majority could be wiped out at the first attempt.
They believe there is some light at the end of a very long tunnel. Whether it turns out to be an oncoming train remains to be seen.
