Russell Jones's Week Moment: All Together for the Wazzock Jamboree

The bestselling author of 'The Decade in Tory' reports on the "thigh-rubbing experiment in humiliation and self-harm" that is the Conservative leadership contest

Tory leadership candidates (l-r) Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick , James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, Wednesday 2 October 2024. Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA Images/Alamy

Public service comes in many forms, and the one chosen by Jonathan Gullis this week was to add to the gaiety of the nation, while simultaneously diminishing its dignity.

In case you missed it, Primark Hodor hasn’t had a job interview in the three months since he was voted out of office, because, he claims, schools have created a “hostile environment” for Tories, a bit like the one he fully supported for immigrants. Why should he take personal responsibility – his entire political credo – for supporting funding cuts to 70% of schools?

My advice to Gullis is this: submit an invoice to the Tory party for your performance as a warm-up act, ahead of the laughable events in Birmingham, where the country’s few remaining Conservatives convened in a turd-bestrewn, hermetically-sealed, right-wing playpen, and set about their annual wazzock jamboree.