And then there were two.
While all eyes have been on Sir Keir Starmer’s trousers - and the deep pockets of the Labour Party when it comes to receiving donations - there’s been another drama playing out at Westminster.
The Conservative party has been squabbling among themselves as the candidates to be the next leader of His Majesty’s Opposition jockeyed and jostled for position.
And now we have the answer – The party will either lurch to the Right, or jump two-footed into its extremes with a cry of ‘I regret nothing!’
In a shock result, James Cleverly, the last ‘moderate’ standing out of the bunch, failed to make the final two on Wednesday – losing out on his chance to make his case to Conservative Party voters after failing to pick up the backing of enough MPS.
Instead, Robert Jenrick and Kemi Badenoch will face off to be the MP who rules the Tories from the ashes of their electoral drubbing at the hands of Labour.
The result of the penultimate vote upset the narrative that Cleverly would be the man to beat.
He had sailed into the round on the back of the most votes, and seemed assured of picking up the ballots previously given to the other centrist, Tom Tugendhat.
But at the final count Cleverly actually lost the backing of two MPs, who defected to one of the other candidates - leaving him out in the cold.
Rumours of tactical voting immediately swept the political chattering classes, with the suggestion that Cleverly had unwisely lent votes to the candidate he thought he was best placed to beat.
If that is the case, it’s a miscalculation for the ages. But it might just be that Tory MPs are tired of moderation after Sunak’s attempts to steady the ship, and want to go full tonto, to borrow a phrase from former Defence Minister Ben Wallace.
Jenrick made immigration central to his campaign – in that he felt the government he was part of hadn’t gone far enough in bringing it down.
The former immigration minister, who resigned from Sunak’s cabinet because the Rwanda deportation scheme wasn't tough enough, swore to “get migration done”, and also said that leaving the European Court of Human Rights was an existential issue for his party.
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For the avoidance of doubt, this is a man who once ordered a reception centre for child asylum seekers in Dover to paint over its cheerful murals of cartoon characters, lest any of the kids be given a reason to smile upon reaching the safety of the UK.
Badenoch, who kept herself in the news and courted fringe Conservatives with her outspoken opposition to the rights of Trans people, endeared herself to voters during her campaign by suggesting she wasn’t 100 per cent behind the NHS being free at the point of use.
Then she questioned whether maternity pay was “excessive”, and said that people should exercise “more personal responsibility”.
This is despite her believing that people are “scared to have families”, apparently without ever stopping to wonder why.
Ms Badenoch won 42 votes and Mr Jenrick 41 votes, to Mr Cleverly’s 37 votes in the latest ballot, with 120 Tory MPs having taken part.
The final round of the contest will now see Conservative Party members across the UK vote, with the result will announced on November 2.
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